Death Note BEYOND
by Rue-Ryuzaki
Summary: Naomi concluded. To catch a killer, you need a killer. How dangerous a gamble this would be. Especially when the killer in question is none other than Beyond Birthday! BB x Naomi UpDaTeD!
1. Prologue

Everybody knows about the struggle between L and Kira, so it's rather pointless to add something to it. Unless that something just happens to be Beyond Birthday.

Naomi might just get revenge for Raye, but at what cost. One thing's certain. B is back, and we're going to go a little beyond Death Note.

(pun intended)

* * *

PROLOGUE

Naomi Misora needed to clear her head. She needed to think everything through. Not only had she been unable to sleep ever since her fiancé had been killed by the murderous Kira, but during the day she could barely think straight, let alone hope to be able to bring Kira to justice. Not alone anyway. Information regarding her fiancé's, Raye Penber, death, or better said, murder, had been minimal. She knew Raye had shown his badge to someone on the bus that had been hijacked, and that the hijacker had died via "accident". That much she knew, but to whom exactly he showed it to she did not know. Raye never told her who it was, and he took those secrets to the grave, much to Kira's fortune.

Naomi wanted to contact L; she knew she could trust him. It was the right thing to do, and the most logical after all. But she had no idea how. She knew he was probably working with the NPA, but how directly they were in contact she didn't. She supposed that the best course of action would be to head there anyway. To at least risk it.

But that would have to wait. At least until she cleared her head a little. This was why she was in the United States at the moment, Los Angeles, California to be exact. At least she told herself that. She couldn't convince herself much as to why she was at the gates of the Los Angeles Federal Prison thought. She signed, and began to walk through. She must have gone mad to be doing this.

Lunch time was over and the prisoners had been taken back to their cells. Beyond basically forced himself back inside and took a seat. He hated this place. Taking a look out the window he could feel what was going on. There he was. Beyond Birthday, the one-time hailed as the World's Greatest Criminal, no just one more on the list of L's past cases. Now, this Kira or whatever he was called was being hailed not only as The Greatest Criminal, but as God as well.

His fist clenched, as his right hand felt a slight pain. Damn his burnt body. No thanks to that woman he had survived, and had to spend the last two years slowly and painfully healing his wounds. While he was starting to resemble the human being he once was, he was still a mess. He smiled and a small chuckle escaped his lips.

'Since when was I human in the first place?' He thought as his stomach made a light sound, clearly not satisfied with the garbage they called food he had just eaten. With a small sign Beyond allowed his body to rest his head on the pillow. Slowly closing his eyes Beyond readied himself to sleep, but was forced to reopen them when the guard hit the bars of his cell.

"Hey freak, you got a visitor."

"Visitor?" Beyond lifted his head. 'Who the hell?'

"Your sister." Replied from the guard as he opened the cell. This was unexpected.

After being lead into a room that was divided by a huge glass in between, Beyond sat, or rather crouched down onto the chair and stared at the figure on the other side. It only took him less than a second to recognize her.

"Misora?" He basically yelled, but regained his composure after hearing himself, he never expected to see this woman again. Let alone her visiting him.

"B." Was her reply. Her voice sounding a mixture of calm and anger, Beyond noted. "It's been a while. You're recovering quite nicely." She spoke in a mix of honesty and mockery that did not go unnoticed on him. "You're starting to look more like you did when I meet you. Not that that's a good thing."

"Naomi Misora. You look… the same. Beautiful as ever." He smiled, might as well enjoy teasing her. Which was all her could probably do right now. Her expresión, however, didn't change.

"Don't give me that B. I-"

"Call me Ryuzaki, for old time's sake."

"B, I've come to ask you something." She clearly didn't hold him in high regards. He had to admit he was disappointed at this. "Kira, what do you know of him?"

"Me. That he's a bastard, a person with powers who's playing God." Beyond's voice changed, a murderous intent she had not heard since he spoke on his trail. "But…" his voice changed again, this time resembling the way he acted as Ryuzaki. "He's better at it than all the others. He's giving L quite a fight."

"L can win. No, he will win. I know it." Naomi looked down, shifting herself on the seat ever so slightly. Beyond just smiled and did the same, except he got closer to the glass wall separating the two. "Answer me this Naomi dear." Her eyes frowned slightly, as his smile grew ever so slightly. "Why would I know anything about Kira? Do you think I'm Kira?"

"No."

She didn't even move. Her eyes staring at his, as if spark was being emitted between them. "But you've been the hardest case for L to solve. You're almost as intelligent as L himself." Beyond forced himself not to cringe at the word 'almost'.

"Your thoughts could be beneficial to the case. You may notice patterns or such in his killings that only L and you would be capable of. You could help us catch Kira."

"And why would I do that?"

"Think about it." Her voice was rising. "You have a life sentence. You're never getting out of here alive."

"And just who do you think I have to thank for that?"

Her fist clenched. "Stop joking around. He's killing people around the world. Criminals and others. You'll be soon to follow."

"You think?"

"Be serious."

Beyond allowed himself to fall back onto his chair, closing his eyes in the process. Naomi just stared as he reopened his eyes and shifted his gaze from her to the table in front of them. "What are you going to do? Set me free if I help. Get real."

Naomi narrowed her eyes a bit. She had come here without really thinking. She wasn't in the force anymore, so she couldn't actually reduce the sentence, let alone set him free. Not to mention he was a murderer, he couldn't be trusted. But, he was a genius. That much she admitted.

"You're right." She said as she stood up, while Beyond shifted his gaze back at her. "This was a waste of time. So long B, I have a plane to catch in a few days so…" Her voice died down as she turned and began to walk. "Farewell."

His eyes widened. This wasn't the same Naomi Misora he had met two years ago. If there was one thing he knew was that he could have beaten L, no, he would have beaten L, if not for her. Naomi had been the one to stop him, the one to really defeat him. Had Kira brought her down like this? The one person he himself couldn't defeat.

Somehow, he hated Kira even more. Kira had done what he never could. He was killing many, while he could only kill a few. Kira had been viewed as a God, while he was only a criminal. Even L had been unable to catch him. Now Kira had brought down Naomi as well.

She was nearing the door when she heard his voice. "Kira… did you know he…" She didn't turn to face him; she wanted to just keep on walking. But something in his voice told her otherwise. And she didn't move.

"…can kill by other means other than heart attacks."

Her eyes widened. And she turned. Within seconds her hands were on the table and her eyes directly on him. "H-How did you…"

"I have my ways." He spoke with a smile, and for a second Naomi could swear she saw his eyes turn a shade of red. "I've seen news on wanted criminals, before they died, and they had a lot more to live. And a few have died by other means. Namely accidents."

"More to live. What do you mean by that?"

"It's a bit hard to explain, and I'll save it for a later occasion. If one should come that is. But the only time when I've been a wrong at 'predicting' a person's death is when they've been killed by Kira. The majority by heart attacks. But a few as I've already said, died differently."

Naomi just stared as she allowed everything to sink in. While part of her refused to believe that B, murderer supreme, could actually predict people's death except when Kira killed them; another part also told her that people couldn't kill others through heart attacks from far away. And she knew what happened with the latter. She signed.

"If you can help us." Naomi allowed herself to speak. "I'll personally make sure to lighten your sentence."

Beyond just closed his eyes. "Sounds wonderful. But I refuse to work alongside L."

"I do need him to agree to this first, however."

Naomi looked on as Beyond's eyes widened, but quickly narrowed. "Is that so? Can't do it yourself now can you?" He mocked, as she simply stared. "Oh well, do as you wish." He continued. "This might give me a chance to get rid of this boring lifestyle. You do know how to contact L, do you not?"

"Erm, well."

Naomi was a little taken aback, but before she could even try to think B spoke. "Thought so."

"Wait, I can still try."

"Go to Wammy's House."

"I beg your pardon."

"Wammy's House, orphanage for the gifted. Search it on the internet. Just go or call there and tell them to contact you to Roger. He'll know how to contact L. If not, he'll at least be able to contact Watari." Beyond stared to the side as a guard came up and place his hand on Beyond's shoulder.

"Time's up." Beyond stood up as Naomi did the same. Without a word Beyond began to walk out, but not before Naomi spoke up. "I'll contact Roger, and speak to L. Under my supervision, I'm sure we can come up with something."

"As you wish." Was all Beyond spoke before walking out, leaving Naomi slightly confused on whether to trust him or not. But she now knew how to try and contact L. Her next step would be going to Wammy's House.

As Beyond was placed back in his cell he gave small thought of what had really happened, his mind instantly went to a bigger scenario. 'Kira …and L. Two birds, one stone.'

And with that he smiled. "And it's all thanks to you Misora. Kya ha ha ha ha ha ha-… Boy, that laugh is severely outdated."

* * *

_OnE, tWo, He'S cOmInG fOr YoU..._

Leave jam...


	2. Chapter 1: Beginning

Took me long enought, did it not? I suppose I should apologize for it. Anywho, this is the actual first chapter, since it gets the plot moving. So without any further bullshit from yours truly I bring you the first (or next) chapter of Death Note BEYOND.

PS: (To BeyondXBirthday) So sorry for not updating sooner. Oh, thanks for the jam. It was incredible.

* * *

Chapter 1

Beginning

After managing to get back to her hotel room after that rather 'unique' visit she gave to Beyond, Naomi decided that now would be the best time to actually see if she could find anything on Wammy's House. Turning her laptop on she began to search.

Naomi found it a bit odd that there was in fact a Wammy's House. According to what she read on the internet it was an orphanage, which apparently took on gifted children, whose intelligence and skill were far greater than average. It actually seemed believable that L could have come from a place like this. So perhaps there would be a way for her to contact L after all.

'So B… you were actually being serious.'

While her eyes wondered the screen of her laptop she found something that made her eyes widen. "England! How does he pretend I get there?"

Knowing fully well that she didn't have the time to go to England and back Naomi decided to see if there was a number to be able to contact them, and after a bit of speed reading she found it. She quickly took out her cell phone and dialed. The phone had barely rang at all before she heard it being picked up on the other line. So fast she hadn't even fully decided what she would say.

"Good evening." An apparently middle aged man spoke though the other line, his voice sounding completely serious.

"Hello, may I speak to Roger?"

"This is him speaking." Naomi was slightly surprised as well that Beyond had been truthful about that too. It meant the she was speaking to the man in charged of the orphanage. Second in command to its founder Quillish Wammy.

"Um yes. This is Naomi Misora speaking." She tensed slightly at speaking her name, knowing how dangerous it could be. But she was willing to risk it in order to reach L. "I know this may sound completely irrational, but I must speak with L."

While she heard nothing she could actually feel his eyes widening. But he managed to regain his composure immensely fast, faster than she had anticipated.

"I'm sorry, but there is no one here by that name, if this is a joke I sincerely do not have the time for-"

"No! That's not it." She practically shouted, clinging to her phone a bit harder. "I've worked with L before, two years ago in the Los Angeles B.B. Murder Cases; I need to speak to him. If not allow me to contact Watari."

She had no idea who Watari even was, but she hoped it would be someone that knew L.

Roger stayed silent for a moment, more than Naomi would have wanted. She felt anxious and at the same time nervous. She heard him take a deep breath as he spoke again. "Please wait a moment."

She heard him place the phone down and apparently spoke something along the line of "Mello" and "sit down". Naomi wondered what exactly she was waiting for; hopefully they wouldn't take the opportunity to track her down via her cell phone. She was no threat. But she supposed L couldn't take any precautions. Still she hoped that wasn't the case.

-

'One, two, three, four, five, six…' he counted in his mind as he stacked the little gummy candies on top of one another. It was honestly harder than it looked. Chocolates were easier to stack.

'Seven, eight…"

Grabbing the soon to be number nine, the famed detective L looked around at his hotel room. It was a real pity he would have to leave it in such short notice. He actually liked this one more than the others. But after having met the five policemen who were going to help him on his case he couldn't just stay. They knew where he was. If Kira got to any of them there was a possibility, more like an eighty-five percent chance, that he could control them and force them to reveal its location. He couldn't take that risk.

He placed the ninth candy on the stack. The phone rang. The stack fell.

'Damn.'

Turning, he looked at Watari's cell phone which had been left on his bed. Shifting his gaze to Watari, who had been sitting on the couch reading a newspaper, but had gotten up when it rang.

"Watari, would you…"

"Certainly."

Watari answered the phone fully knowing who it was, courtesy of his selected ring tones. "Good evening Roger."

"Quillish." Was the reply. "I have something that I must discuss with L."

Turning to said man, Watari handed the phone to him. "Ryuzaki." Grabbing it with just his thumb and index fingers Ryuzaki just nodded. "Hello Roger, how may I help you?"

"L, do you happen to know of a Naomi Misora?"

Cocking his head slightly Ryuzaki thought for a moment. "Misora? Sounds somewhat familiar."

"From the Los Angeles B.B. Murder Cases."

"Oh!" Ryuzaki stood up quickly, slightly surprising the watching Watari. "Yes, I remember her, last I had heard her fiancé had died. Why do you ask?"

"She's calling here."

-

Ten minutes.

She had been waiting for ten minutes already. Was L that hard to contact? Was he even contacting L. She was having second thoughts about this call when she heard the phone being picked up.

"Please check your e-mail."

Before she could even ask him, Roger hung up the phone and left Naomi a bit dumbfounded. Shaking it off she did as told and found that she did in fact have a new message. From Raye Penber. She felt a slight sting in her heart at reading that name, but she knew who it was without having to read it.

"_Miss Naomi Misora;_

_This is L. I have been contacted by Roger that you need to speak with me. I assume that said necessity has to do with the Kira case. If you would, please access the Funny Dish server at 9:00 pm. today. Said line will be opened for only five minutes. Considering we met like this before it should be no problem to do so again. Do break through the firewall yourself… again._

_L_

_PS: I'm terribly sorry to have to use your late fiancé's address, it was the safest method._

_PSS: Please destroy this computer within the next twenty-four hours."_

After reading it Naomi signed. That was the second one L had destroyed. 'So, I have to break in to the server by nine. And it's…' Watching her cell phone, she noticed that it displayed the time as 8:58 pm. She signed.

"Shit."

-

Never had she managed to break into a server at such speeds. Naomi had even managed to do so after only a few second had passed after the time had become 9:00. Watching her screen turn completely white didn't surprise her; neither did the big L on the screen.

"Greetings Naomi Misora." L's voice spoke through her speakers, it being unrecognizable.

Misora quickly typed on her keyboard. She needed to tell him too much information for just five minutes. "Greetings L. I have something urgent I must speak with you."

"I presume. Do tell."

"I have reasons to believe that Kira can kill through other means other than heart attacks." She typed as fast as she could, hoping that she would commit any spelling errors. Now was not the time.

"Other means? I have been pondering that for a bit now." L spoke. "Said possibility is in about seventy percent. How did you come to this conclusion?"

She was about to start writing about Raye's encounter on the bus, but looking at the time she decided to shorten it. "I've first had my suspicions with something that occurred before the death of my fiancé, Raye. But someone else also came to the same conclusion, with whom I spoke in order to contact you."

"Who?"

"Beyond Birthday?"

She heard a crash, from her speaker. Unknown to her Ryuzaki had fallen from his chair. Standing back up faster than what he had fallen Ryuzaki thought for a moment. "He came to this conclusion as well?"

"Yes."

Naomi had thought L would have questioned her going to speak with him of such matters; L was rather hard to understand.

"I see." A few seconds passed as L pondered this. "So what do you propose? That he might be of use to the investigation?"

"It is a possibility." She wrote back.

"And what would we give him, a shorter sentence perhaps?"

"If it were possible." Naomi could almost feel L thinking on the other side, it made her shiver slightly.

"That's a-"

'Stupid, moronic, idiotic idea' She thought.

"-marvelous idea."

Her eyes widened. He agreed, just like that. Surely he'd give something such as this more thought.

"I'm sure that with his help we might actually capture Kira faster. So I suppose-" With that the screen faded to black as the server was brought down. It took Naomi a few seconds to realize that her time was up.

"Oh come on!" She shouted as she removed herself from the server. Before she could pick her phone up again she heard her computer utter the "You got Mail" phrase and a new e-mail appeared. Opening it with out giving it much thought, since it was being sent by "Raye".

"_Miss Naomi Misora._

_I apologize for that. Maybe ten minutes would have been better. Either way I shall get everything settled so that we can use B.B.'s assistance. All you have to do is to be at the __Los Angeles Federal Prison at 8:00 am tomorrow morning. When you get there state you name and the will do the rest._

_L_

_PS: Tell B that I said hi."_

She blinked. Twice.

Not only had she expected to be allowed to actually go through with her idea, but L agreed without a second thought. Did he trust her that much? Either way Naomi decided that now would be a good time to shower and then to sleep. Tomorrow she had to destroy her laptop and visit the federal prison. That sounded nice.

Signing she made her way into the bathroom.

-

As L turned off his computer, he stood up and walked towards the window, and took a glance at the streets below. Japan actually seemed peaceful.

"Ryuzaki." Watari spoke up. "Do you think it's a good idea to actually use Beyond Birthday's help? I know he's a genius, but…"

"Right now Kira's on the loose killing criminals right and left." Ryuzaki spoke up, his gaze still focused on the outside. "Not only that but he got twelve FBI agents as well. And if my instincts are correct, there may be even more that he's killed without us knowing. B. may be a murderer, but right now even he knows that he's in danger of being killed himself. And if I know him, he'll want to get to Kira before I do."

"And what do you think of that?" Watari spoke, his eyes slightly widening as he saw L's face bright up with wide smile.

"I actually find that very interesting."

* * *

Where the hell am I in all of this you ask?... In prison.

In all seriousness, while I do not appear in this chapter I promise you that I shall be in the next. Also worth mentioning is that this chapter was shorter than I wanted; and probably shorter than what you all hoped; but I wanted to leave it there for now. Why? You'll learn soon enough.

I guess Naomi got the spotlight today, that bastard L too...

Muchas Gracias to everyone who reviewed. I guess it makes this whole thing worthwhile.

-Rue


	3. Chapter 2: Reunion

Is it me, or have I actually seen a few (very little) other BxNaomi out there? Now I am getting somewhere here. For those who write, write on; for those who read, read on. For those that do both you had better read first then write, my advice is all.

(Thanks for the jam, I can never have enough)

* * *

Chapter 2

Reunion

So there she was. At the Los Angeles Federal Prison. Again. At eight o'clock in the morning.

Naomi didn't really mind that, not much anyway. She had gotten used to working early, with little to none hours of sleep. Nor did she mind the fact that she had to destroy, again, a perfectly good laptop because of L's orders. No, she did it once and shall continue to do it whenever it is necessary. She hoped L wouldn't make a habit of it anyway.

But no, none of that bothered her. What did bother her was the fact that she had no idea what was it exactly that she was supposed to be doing there. She was told to arrive at eight; she had been there since seven thirty.

Seeing a man heading towards her, the warden she presumed due to his uniform, Naomi walked towards his direction. As he stopped directly in front of her said man checked a clipboard placed securely around his neck. He then shifted his gaze at her.

"Name?"

"Naomi Misora." She stated gazing from the man to the clipboard. He held it a bit too tight, clearly intent on her not seeing what was written on it. "Identification please."

Quickly taking out her wallet from her purse she showed the man her license, which he looked at intensely. She felt slightly uncomfortable, as he gazed at the license, the clipboard and her face. "Badge?"

"Right here." She spoke as she flashed her badge at the man, prepared to show him her social security and birth certificate. He however just wrote a few things on his clipboard, and handed her a sealed blank envelope. Before she could even ask the man turned around and walked away.

Deciding it would be better to open the envelope; she did just that. The first thing that came out was a small key, followed by a letter written by computer. It read:

"_Miss Naomi Misora;_

_Inside this envelope you'll find all you need in order to get Tokyo, Japan. I have enclosed two flight tickets which will take you to Hawaii, USA; followed by arriving at Tokyo, Japan. I've also prepared a private transportation I got for you to take you from the prison to the airport. One of my associates shall be waiting for you at the airport in Tokyo. All I ask of you is to escort B during the plane rides. Considering your reputation this will be no great feat._

_I have included, separately, a set of two fake ID's for your personal use and B's. Please use those names at all times._

_L_

_PS: Do not worry for your things, I will personally send for them once you've arrived. As for anything you may need in between I shall be glad to comply._

_PSS: I've also enclosed something for emergency use only._

_PSSS: Burn this note. I've enclosed something for that as well."_

She blinked, dumbfounded, before reading the entire thing again. "He wants me to what!" Naomi didn't even acknowledge the stares she got from nearby guards, since she was in shook.

'I have to escort him.'

Why would L want, no, allow for her to actually escort a serial killer, alone. She took a deep breathe, trying to calm herself a bit. 'Ok, ok… Since someone's taking us to the airport; and we're being escorted to L from the airport in Tokyo; which means that I would be alone with B only during the plane rides and at the airport in Hawaii. Well, not alone since they'll be a lot of other people, but still…'

As she looked at her side she saw the warden walking towards her, this time with a small suitcase at hand. Handing said suitcase to her she noticed that the key she had just gotten was for it, and opened it. Inside were indeed the things L had mentioned: two tickets for Hawaii, two more for Tokyo; two FBI ID's; a caliber pistol with a license for said pistol; and a lighter.

Her eyes eyeing the pistol, she supposed it was the "emergency use only" he had mentioned. Grabbing said pistol first, that already included a pouch, and placed in on her hip.

She grabbed one of the ID's, which read the name Rue Ryuzaki, and sported a picture of said person. Honestly, how was anyone supposed to buy that that _thing_ was a FBI agent. She grabbed the other ID, which sported the name Shoko Maki, and had a picture of her. Placing it on her purse alongside the tickets she picked the lighter and closed the briefcase. With a nod from the warden, who took the briefcase away, Naomi quickly turned on the lighter and burnt the letter.

Signing she took another look at B's ID. It seemed that it was a photo from when he was convicted. Thought it had been altered so he didn't look like a convict, and the then more visible burn marks had been edited. Rue Ryuzaki. Beyond Birthday. B.B. The man Raye had warned her about. The man L had told her it was ok to trust. The man who had been the killer behind the Los Angeles B.B. Murder Cases. And the man she had actually made Naomi sit like a freak in order to help her think. That man.

"Naomi Misora."

She looked to the side at the recognition of the voice. Walking in between two armed guards, while still handcuffed, was Beyond Birthday, a smirk visible on his face. She tensed slightly.

"Miss Misora." One of the guards spoke. "We hereby hand the prisoner Beyond Birthday towards you, while the specific details to this are unknown to us, by order of L you are to escort him."

"Really?" Beyond's spoke shifting his gaze towards the guard, then back at Naomi. "You really came through Naomi. I'm so grateful." As Beyond gave a small laugh, Naomi took at the files the guard handed her. Signing them she was then given the keys to his cuffs, and turned.

"Good riddance freak." The other spoke, as they walked away. Their only response was a smirk from Beyond. Turning to face Naomi Beyond couldn't help shift his gaze down, then up again. "Well damn, you've gotten even better looking."

"Right." She just turned and signaled him to walk, which he did without hesitation.

After walking out of the front gates of the prison Beyond gave a small sign. "I'm seriously going to miss that place."

"You could stay."

"Oh no, I wouldn't want to leave you alone now would I." As she gazed around she saw a black limousine parked a bit from them. Guessing it would hurt to ask if that was what L had sent for them; she walked towards it, but stopped and turned. Seeing her gaze Beyond raised an eyebrow. "What? Do you really think I'll make a run for it? I'm handcuffed, my body is not at its physical peak, your probably armed and even if your not you can and have kicked my ass. So I rather not-"

"That's not it. Don't you have anything to bring with you?" She gazed as she looked at him. With only a white long sleeved shirt and loose fitting jeans, he didn't look a bit like a FBI. Even his tennis shoes looked broken and beaten.

"Actually, this is everything." He spoke, gazing back at the prison. "In there they gave you the uniform." Beyond spoke signaling the prison with a head gesture. "The only clothes I had that were mine are these ones and the ones I got taken to the hospital with. And the fire practically left me half naked in my underwear, I think, so those are none existent by now."

"You got burnt everywhere?" She couldn't help herself from asking, that had to hurt. With a faint smile he turned back to her. "Oh not everywhere. I'm still very much a man."

"Not what I meant."

"My apologies."

-

It turned out that the limousine was in fact the one L had sent, and they got on their way towards the airport. The driver was a young man who drove a bit too fast for Naomi's opinion, but had been very polite. He had held the door out for her and everything, something that Beyond had chuckled about. Everything had been going alright, aside from Beyond's protest to rather walk to the airport than ride one of L's limousines. Unfortunately for him Naomi didn't want to walk, and he was shoved inside.

"So… I'm pretending to be an FBI agent." Beyond spoke while looking at his new badge. "Rue Ryuzaki, you told him, didn't you?"

"Yes, two years ago. He has rather good memory."

"I heard all elephants do." Beyond would have chuckled if not for the glare Naomi gave him, which in turn he just coughed. "What's your alias?"

"Shoko Maki." She replied as she showed him her ID.

"Cute picture, ugly name."

"It's an alias I had already used before on one of my first cases after I worked with L." She said as she placed the badge back on her purse, while he placed his on his back pocket. Thought with great difficulty. "Not to sound ungrateful, but just how am I going to pose as a FBI with handcuffs on. Do you think they'll buy the whole I tried to do a magic trick and lost the keys scenario?"

Naomi shifted her gaze directly at him, thinking. "Come on." He spoke, wiggling the chains. "I'm not going to run away. I have nothing to gain from it. If I run, just post the news on the internet with my name and a picture for good measure. I won't last a day."

"I wouldn't want a fate like that for anyone. Not even you." Her eyes narrowed, as he just stared at her. He knew she hadn't been like this before.

Before he could speak she grabbed one of his wrists and with the key quickly removed the handcuff, handing him the key afterwards so that he could remove the other. After tossing said handcuffs onto the floor he stretched his arms on opposite directions. "That's better."

Shifting his gaze back at her, Beyond couldn't help but feel amused by her. She always amused him, always managing to keep her cool under pressure. Even know, sitting next to him, her features reflected no fear or even tension. Regardless whether or not she was feeling any.

"You know what?" Beyond broke the silence with a rather too cheerful voice, in Naomi's opinion. "At first I thought I'd be laughed at when my… colleges found out I had been imprisoned by a woman."

While her eyes narrowed, she did shift her attention to him. "A little chauvinist, are you?"

"Oh no." Beyond corrected, wiggling his finger in response. "Not like that, it's just…" After a brief pause, in which Beyond rethought what he was originally going to say, he continued. "Some dumb male pride which we have, thought perhaps it is a bit chauvinist."

While Naomi continued to look at him Beyond placed on of his hands near his face, during which his thumb found its way onto his mouth. While that gave Naomi a small flashback of when she had met him originally, it appeared to help Beyond continue.

"Anyhow, the response I got was quite the opposite. At first everyone though you had set me on fire."

"What? Like I'm that homicidal."

"Your reputation states otherwise, Naomi Massacre." Beyond couldn't help but grin at the slight blush that adorned Naomi's cheeks, thought he couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment of reminding her of her past attitude, or anger that he had successfully contradicted her. Probably both.

"That was just a nickname."

Shifting on his seat, Beyond turned his attention towards the window. Naomi just looked as she had expected a response from him. Before she could even speak he responded. "You're something else Naomi… You surpass in beauty the women I've seen; and yet, you surpass in strength the men I've met. You're a dangerous woman, Naomi Misora."

"And this coming from you." Naomi gave a faint smile as she relaxed on her seat; while Beyond just smiled.

"Touché."

* * *

I know what your thinking, "So much waiting for this crap?" Worry not, I've already started the next chapter. Part of the reason this one is a bit short is because the last part was transfered to it. It just didn't fit as well. Reviews (& jam) are very much apreciated.

-Rue


	4. Chapter 3: Arrival

I don't want it to become a trend for me to update once every month, so I thought it wouldn't hurt updating now. I'm ever so thankful for everyone's support (Jam!), and if you need to congratulate me, remind me, ask me or down right bash me, feel free to do so.

Those that give me jam shall be my priority...

* * *

Chapter 3

Arrival

Biting the tip of his thumb, the greatest detective to ever live, L, stared at the videotape for about the eight's time. After deciding to divide the work, only Soichiro Yagami and Matsuda Touta remained with him. The former drinking more coffee than usual in order to stay awake. The latter having been smacked with a newspaper for drooling on the desk.

"Ok…" Matsuda spoke as he yawned, barely able to keep his eyes opened. "We know Raye Penber got on the subway at 3:13 pm and got off at 4:42 pm. Shortly after that he collapsed and died due to the heart attack. At about the same time the remaining eleven FBI agents also died by the same cause." Another yawn found its way out. Placing a hand over his mouth Matsuda murmured an apology, while Soichiro turned to L.

"What are you thinking Ryuzaki? There must be a reason for you to be watching this particular video over and over." He asked.

"Why yes, there is." L leaned closer towards the monitor. "The thing is that the subway does a complete route in an hour, while Mr. Penber was on it for about an hour and a half. Not only that but…"

L leaned even closer, while both Soichiro and Matsuda watched.

"He doesn't have the envelope when he comes out."

"Envelope?" Matsuda asked as he looked at the screen. "What en-"

"That one." L said as he pointed at the screen, where there was in fact an envelope. Both Soichiro and Matsuda gapped in amazement, while L just narrowed his eyes. 'Where did that envelope go?'

"That's amazing Ryuzaki." Soichiro applauded as he searched the monitor of Penber's death, where no such envelope could be spotted. Matsuda on the other hand shifted his gaze back at L. "Ryuzaki. What does it mean?"

L signed as he picked a nearby sweet tray before he began eating a few pieces. "The biggest possibility is that Penber left the envelope on the subway, the bigger question however is why. Why would he leave it, and did it have something to do with his and the other eleven agents deaths? That envelope-"

Before L could continued he was stopped by the sound of his cell phone, which he in turn answered. Soichiro and Matsuda just looked on as L spoke with no more than a few words as replies, during which he nodded a couple of times, regardless of the fact that the other person couldn't see him. With a final nod and an affirmative yes L hung up the phone and turned his attention to Matsuda.

"Seems like Watari is currently caught up in a couple of things with the rest of our little group. Matsuda, I have a small request." The man in question just stared as L picked another sugary sweet and placed it on his mouth. "I have a few guests coming over, two of them in fact. Would you be so kind and pick them up at the airport."

Matsuda just blinked before he forcefully nodded, no use arguing. "Sure, why not." Matsuda just hoped that picking them up and bringing them back would then allow him to sleep for a couple of hours, he didn't know how much he could last this way.

"Guests?" Soichiro questioned as L just picked another sweet. "Why yes. One of them is a rather extraordinary FBI agent." During which L coughed, and Soichiro could have sworn he heard L cough "former". "Her name is Naomi Misora, but you'll all refer to her as Shoko Maki. She helped me during a rather tough case a few years back, there's no doubt on my mind she'll be of use to us now."

"And the other." Matsuda asked, trying to hide the fact that he was trilled that a woman would work alongside these dull men filled environment. He wondered how pretty she was, but was taken back to reality when L spoke. "The other? We'll he… he… he's a guy."

Soichiro and Matsuda just narrowed there eyes. "And?" They asked in unison. L just signed. "Well, you'll learn soon enough, just go pick them up. And when you do ask for her." Matsuda nodded as he left, while Soichiro just looked back at L, wondering who this other man could be. It was clear L didn't want to talk much about him.

L just ate another piece of sweet, narrowing his eyes in the process. 'I should have thought this over a bit more…'

-

Not much afterwards a single plane adorned the mostly empty skies. Said plane slowly came down and landed, and after a few minutes its passengers where getting of at a steady pace, during which two "FBI" agents got off. After taking quite a few steps they found themselves at the main lobby.

It was a rather big airport, and quite filled up with a lot of people. Having left from California at roughly 10:00 o'clock during the morning, the two had been on the plane for more than an entire day, excluding the one stop. They had arrived at Tokyo, Japan at 2:20 o'clock during the afternoon, the next day. Too much time on a plane for either of their liking.

Looking to the sides Beyond just yawned. If that bastard L made him go through that much sitting down ever again he was seriously getting a knife through the throat, but not before his limbs were stuffed down it first.

"Where?" Naomi spoke softly as she looked around. Beyond just raised a brow as he looked at her. "L said he would send someone here to pick us up, but I don't see anyone with my name."

"Shoko, you mean."

"Yes." Naomi walked on searching to see anyone who could possibly be linked to L in some way. Since they were pretending to be FBI's there had to be someone who was an FBI waiting for them. No such person could be spotted.

Instinctively, her hand made its way towards her phone, only to stop halfway when she realized she didn't have any number she could call. Signing, she turned towards Beyond, who had been staring at her the whole time.

"We might have to wait a while before someone comes."

"Like hell we are." Before Naomi could even protest Beyond walked straight out of the airport. Looking around he saw that there weren't as many people outside as they were inside. No FBI look-alikes either. Taking a few more steps Beyond was dumbfounded when he saw that he was headed straight for the floor. Funny, he didn't remember tripping. Falling flat on his chest, it was then Beyond realized that a certain brunette was on top of him, holding him with a grip he was sure he couldn't break. Misora Massacre indeed.

"What the hell are you trying to pull?" Her eyes showed quite a lot of anger, which Beyond found both amusing and slightly fearful, due to the fact that this woman could kick his ass with ease.

"Shoko dear, I'm not going anywhere. I was going to see where the department where the Japanese police reside is, that way we can walk there." Beyond looked as Naomi allowed his words to sink in, which he could tell since her grip was slightly loosening. "By the way, people are staring."

During the commotion Naomi had failed to see that the two had caused quite a crowd, the nearby people looking at the two curiously. Blushing slightly Naomi released her grip and stood up. Beyond did the same with a small grin on his face. "Glad to know you still live up to your reputation."

Ignoring his comment Naomi spoke. "We were told to wait, there's no need to walk there."

"Why wait, we've been sitting on the damn plane for more than a day. You want us to sit and wait some more."

As much as she hated it, she actually agreed with him. It ached to even think about sitting for so long again. Signing she began to walk, while Beyond followed close by. "I've been to the station before, with Raye."

Beyond frowned slightly at the mention of his name, as her voice usually fell whenever she did. "So I know it's not to far from here."

"That's perfect."

"Don't separate yourself from me like that again, understand."

Nodding Beyond remained silent, while Naomi felt slightly tense due to the fact that she wasn't following L's direct orders. While all common sense told her to stay and wait, something inside her told her to go on. She hoped she didn't screw anything up.

-

Not far of, at the airport's parking was a small black car parked not far from the main entrance. On said car was a young man, who had arrived a bit earlier than the plane for which he was waiting for. Having decided to take a small nap in the meantime, he had placed an alarm on his cell phone in order to wake himself up. Unfortunately for him, his phone ran out of battery before the alarm had gone off, resulting on him missing the plane, or rather the people he was supposed to escort.

That man was Matsuda Touta.

-

His writing was impeccable. No mistake could be spotted as his pen danced along the thin papers he wrote on. What he wrote was no more than a couple of names. With a final stroke Light Yagami closed his Death Note and placed it securely back onto his desk drawer. Standing up he made his way out of his room and onto the kitchen.

"Light-kun."

Turning his attention towards his mother Light gave a faint smile. "Don't tell me, dad finally called."

"Why yes." A smile adorned her features, relieved to have heard from her husband again. "Unfortunately he won't be coming home for a while, but I promised him I'd take today's meal directly to him at his Headquarters. I was wondering-"

"I'll take it to him."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Besides, I was hoping to see if I could atleast speak a few words to him, personally." Picking up the box that his mother had prepared Light walked out the door and headed towards the police department. In his mind he had another motive for this, hoping that perhaps he could get some, any, information from his father of the investigation. Anything that could give him a step ahead from L would suffice.

"Heading back there again, eh?"

Without even looking the shinigami's way, Light gave a small nod of acknowledgment. "I need all that I can get on L in order for there to be true justice in this world. You know that."

"Yeah, just checking."

-

Both Naomi and Beyond stood in front of the police station, both a bit tired as the walk had been slightly longer than expected. Naomi however was relieved to see that they had finally gotten there, and in a few minutes she could meet up with L. It hadn't hit her until then that this would be the first time, or so she thought, that she would meet L in person, face to face. She inwardly smiled as she began to walk forward, but stopped as she noticed that Beyond hadn't moved.

"I'm not going in there."

Her eyes widened. "What? You agreed to this. What's so wrong with going in, especially when it was you the one who said that we should walk here?"

"While I agreed with you on everything I made it quite clear that I wasn't going to work alongside L. I have nothing against with working alongside you, even if you work alongside him. Much less do I want to see that bastard. If you don't mind I'll wait for you here."

Naomi was dumbfounded, although she should have suspected this from him. He was like a stubborn child. She didn't know whether to trust him enough to just leave him out here alone or force him inside. She was more inclined towards the latter option, but before she could move he spoke.

"I won't move from this spot. That much I promise you."

Signing Naomi walked inside, taking a peak behind her during every few steps. Luckily for her that the doors and surrounding walls were made of glass. Heading straight to the counter, where two young men where, Naomi stopped.

"Excuse me. My name is Shoko Maki; I'm here to speak with L's department."

Both men exchanged glances; it wasn't everyday someone asked for that. "I'm sorry miss." One spoke. "None of the members who are working alongside L, much less L himself, is present at the moment."

Her eyes widened. 'Don't tell me…'

Outside Beyond just stared. 'What's taking her so long; she's just standing there chatting. Just go to L already and get it over with.' Holding his urge to barge in, Beyond singed. 'This is going to be a rather long day.'

Before he could think anything else, a young man passed by his side, heading for the department. The man seemed normal enough, brown hair, well dressed; not much out of the ordinary.

What bothered Beyond however was the chill he got when he had passed him. Like if something had gone straight through him. The man entered the department with out even turning, due to which Beyond couldn't see his name.

Light Yagami stopped as he saw Naomi speaking. Listening to her words, his eyes widened. "Do you have any idea where L could be at this moment?"

"I'm sorry miss, but we're never given that information. You have to come back later, perhaps then someone might be here." Lowering her head Naomi couldn't help but feel stupid. Ad she stayed at the airport she could have probably been on her way to meet L, since he obviously was well hidden. 'What now.'

"Um, excuse me."

She was taken out of her thoughts when a young man spoke. Said man handed a small box towards one of the men she had been speaking to. After a few words were exchanged he turned to her.

"I may not know what it is that you need, but my father works on the Kira Case, he might have an idea where L is."

Naomi just stared at this young man as she heard one of the others protest, but was shut up when the other man told him it was ok. "You wouldn't happen to know where it is that they are?"

"Not exactly." Light spoke as he shifted his gaze. "But I could call him for you. If you'd like."

With a nod as agreement, both Light and Naomi walked a few steps back. Exiting the building, due to Light's request since his phone didn't get much signal inside, both of them walked towards the side.

Beyond looked on as Naomi walked alongside this man in an opposite direction where he stood. Wondering if said man worked along side L, Beyond just stared at his face. 'Light Yagami, huh?'

Seeing his name with his Shinigami Eyes was simple now that he had seen his face, but… 'What the hell?'

Closing his cell phone, Light turned to Naomi. "Sorry, it appears he has his phone turned off. Don't mind my asking, but what is it exactly that you want to speak with him about."

"I shouldn't say much." Naomi started. "But I believe that Kira can kill in other ways other than heart attacks, and can control victim's actions before they die. I was hoping I could speak to L about it."

Light's eyes widened. 'What! How did she? Who is this woman?' Trying to calm himself down, Light spoke. "That's a very interesting thought, and I suppose it is possible. How did you come up with that?"

Lowering her gaze slightly, Naomi took a deep breathe. "One of the twelve FBI agents killed was my fiancée, Raye Penber."

'Penber? That man… she's his fiancée.' Shaking his thoughts Light decided it was best to continue. "Have you told it to any one else?"

"Well actually… no. I haven't really." 'Except Beyond.' Naomi supposed this man knew enough, no use telling him about someone like Beyond anyway. Speaking of which, it wasn't the very best idea to leave him alone like that. She had better get back to him.

'That's good, she hasn't told anyone yet. Perhaps there really is a God up there on my side, and not just a Shinigami. Still, I can't let her reach L.'

"Well, I thank you for your help, but I better be going."

"My name's Light." She stopped as Light spoke up. "The least I can do for you is tell my dad about you when I contact him later on. What's your name?"

"I'm Shoko Maki."

Ignoring the laughter from his Shinigami, Light wrote her name on a piece of the Death Note he always carried. 'Good.' He asked her for other information to keep her there, like address, phone number, etc. Rather than write that he just wrote her cause of death.

"_Shoko Maki – Suicide – Goes to a location only she knows where no one would be able to find her."_

After having written it he spoke. "As soon as I get in contact with my dad I'll be sure to give him your information. I'm sure he would contact you with L in no time."

"I'd appreciate it immensely."

Looking at his watch Light saw that the forty minutes had passed, and he looked at her with a slight smile; only to see her staring back at him as she had been a few seconds ago.

'What the-'

Ryuk's laughter filled his ears as Light eyes widened. 'Nothing happened.'

"I better get going, thank you." Was all Naomi spoke before she turned. Light practically yelled at her to wait, surprising her slightly. 'Damn it. Why didn't anything happen? I've written suicide before, and they've done it. How?'

Hearing Ryuk's laughter Light became even more annoyed. 'He's been laughing like that ever since she said her name… Unless… It's an alias.'

"Do you need something?"

Light's attention was turned towards Naomi, who appeared to be in a hurry to leave. 'Damn it, I can't let her leave; but I can't ask her real name or she'll suspect something. She's a woman, so I could… no, I'll just cause a scene. Damn it, I have to trick her. How? Damn it, I have-'

Light thoughts where once again stopped, but this time by a hand being placed on his shoulder. Looking at Naomi Light could see that she was a bit too far, and both of her hands were with her. Although she was also looking quite surprised, her eyes placed at the person behind him.

Turning Light's eyes were met by another set of eyes staring not at him, but slightly above him. Something about this man he didn't like. 'Who?'

Something about this man bothered Beyond. It wasn't that he looked suspicious, nor was it the fact that he had been talking with Naomi for a bit. None of that bothered him. Only one thing did.

'Why can't I see his death?'

* * *

I tried to change Light's meeting with Naomi a bit, no point in reading a fanfic which tells you exactly what you read on the manga or saw on the anime. Even so some things on this story might be slighly parrallel with the actual canon. Atleast at first.

Regardless of which this is actually where the plot will start moving foward. Let's just wait and see.

-Rue


	5. Chapter 4: Encounter

A new chapter before the end of the month... that's has got to be a personal record. I'm so proud.

That aside I want to thank everyone of you who has read and liked this fic, most notably those who review. And... fine, I _might _need a beta... anyone interested? (Must give me jam for it)

* * *

Chapter 4

Encounter

Light Yagami had seen a lot since he first picked up the Death Note that fateful day. From criminals who had done simple crimes to mass murderers who had done things so horrid he had written their names in capitals hoping the heart attack would hurt even more. From thieves to molesters Light, better known as Kira, knew he had to be strong enough to bear with these things until these monsters were eradicated from the face of the Earth. Kira, no, the God of the New World had and was prepared for anything. And he would not be stopped until he achieved that goal.

But right now, Light was staring face-to-face with a man that had actually given him a slight chill. If he had seen freaks before, this guy was a total freak. A worn-out long-sleeved white (or so it used to be) shirt, baggy old jeans, broken shoes and messy hair and features that made him look as if he had crawled from under a rock.

Beyond just stared at Light, or better said above Light. Lifespan, where was his damn lifespan? He could see his name, Light Yagami, floating above his head like he normally could with other people. Like he could see Naomi's. Like he could see his own. But…

'What gives…? He has no death. No date to die.' He shifted his gaze at Naomi, who had a confused and slightly shocked look on her face. No doubt trying to figure Beyond's intervention. He could see both her name and death.

"Um… Can I help you?"

Beyond was brought back to reality by a voice he couldn't recognize, no doubt the man whose shoulder he had grabbed. Releasing his grip Beyond allowed the man to turn and face him, allowing for direct eye contact.

"Not sure you can." Beyond spoke while flashing a rather large smile. While it would have looked kind of cute had a kid done it, it rather gave Light the creeps. "We're needed somewhere, so we must go."

"We?" Light asked, for a moment thinking he was referring to him. It didn't take him long to realize it was Naomi he was referring to. It didn't take her long either.

Light turned towards her as Beyond took a few steps forward. With his back still facing Light, Beyond turned to Misora. "Don't forget what we came here for. Let's go."

His statement seemed more like a command. While she would have outright put him on his place, she was in charge, not him, the way he had spoken worried her slightly. 'He sounds different. He… He actually sounds nervous. But why? Could it be… ?' Her eyes only met Light's again for a split second. 'Could this man…'

Light on the other hand realized that this man wanted to take away the woman he needed to kill, even more the fact that this man had to know something about the Kira case by the way he acted. 'I have to stay calm, think… I've got to play it safe.'

"I'm sorry if I was holding you up Shoko-san, but we've been talking here about the Kira case. Considering you're with her you must be involved someway as well." Light paused slightly to see if this man gave any slight reaction. He was disappointed that said man didn't even flinch. He didn't even acknowledge whether or not he was even paying attention.

"So…" Light continued. "I wanted to share a few thoughts between us. Now that you've joined us as well we could speak a little, if you can. I'm Light Yagami, by the way."

"Good for you."

"…"

Light didn't even know how to respond. Was this man purposely mocking him? Not only was it a fact that no one should be allowed to mock Kira, but more so when said Kira couldn't do a single thing about it. Part of him actually considered making the deal for the Shinigami Eyes. He shook his head slightly.

"I'm joking. Don't take it personally Light-kun." Beyond responded, a slight smile visible on his features. Weather or not this guy had any relation to Kira, Beyond felt slight relieve to see that he could be aggravated.

"You can call me Ryuzaki, Rue Ryuzaki."

-

"What time… is it?"

Raising his seat unto the proper position, Matsuda turned and grabbed his phone, which rested next to him. 'I could have sworn I didn't have that much time to sleep… But I do feel rather rested.' Opening his phone Matsuda was rather dumbfounded when nothing happened, since his phone wasn't turned on at the moment.

"Wha-?"

Pressing the button to turn it on he felt rather nervous when nothing happened. "Don't tell me…"

Redirecting his gaze at his wrist watch Matsuda felt the air around him get very cold. "Holy shit!"

Racing out of his car, tripping and falling in the process, Matsuda ran as fast as his feet could carry him towards the airport. Having to return to the car to grab the carton he had previously made sporting 'Shoko Maki's name. Arriving at said airport faster than it should be humanly possible Matsuda held the carton and looked around. It had been quite some time since the plane had been supposed to arrive, and according to the schedule, it had arrived on time.

Not seeing anyone there who paid him the slightest attention Matsuda felt that his career was going to go down the toilet when L got word of this.

"I'm so screwed…"

-

The moment Beyond had spoken his name, Ryuk had erupted in laughter, leaving Light no doubt that that had been just another alias. Still, Beyond wasn't the only one who could act, and Light just gave a rather convincing smile. For a moment none of them spoke, and the silence filled the area. Only a couple of chuckles escaped Ryuk's lips, who was having a good time with these humans who seemed very interesting. He in particular found the messy haired one rather amusing.

'Why can't I see his death? My eyes can see the death of every other person I've met. Only persons who are killed by Kira or have already died don't have a death warrant on them… Or myself… Who is this man? Does he have some connections to Kira? Is he being controlled by Kira? Or could he be… No, that's just stupid. The so-called World's Greatest Criminal and self-proclaimed God couldn't possibly be this guy.'

'This man… He's using an alias as well. Both he and that woman have been incredibly cautious from the start. She didn't even mention him, stating that she was alone. And he just urged her to leave. Does he suspect… No, that's impossible. He can't suspect me. I didn't even do anything suspicious. Asking for a name isn't suspicious. Who are they?'

'Ryuzaki… What can you see that I can't? You keep staring at this man. Can you really see something about him? Is he dangerous? He was a little persistent about me speaking to him, but other than that… Damn, Ryuzaki… If you weren't so hard to understand I might be able to think a little more clearly. What should I do?'

Seconds seemed like hours as the three just stared into nothingness, there minds deep in thought. While neither of the noticed, they would have seemed like three idiots just standing there. Naomi was the first to snap out of her thoughts and speak.

"Well Ryuzaki. If we must go then I suppose we should get going."

"I suppose we should."

"But wait…" Light spoke. While he was starting to lose his cool he refused to show it. 'I can't let them go, not with what they know. I have to think of something. What?'

"Remember Light… You could easily do the eye deal right now. It's like putting on a pair of contacts. It would be over in a couple of seconds, and both of their names would be yours for the writing." Ryuk's voiced echoed through his ears, followed by his laughter.

'Shut up Shinigami, I will not use half of my remaining life on these two… on anyone. Not even on L.' Closing his eyes slightly as he managed to think. Reopening them in an instant Light gave a slight smile.

"I'll get out of your hair. But… with the information you've deduced." Light spoke, his attention directed at Naomi. "You'd really help the investigation move forwards, since our current group is stumped. Even L is having a hard time."

'L.' Both Beyond and Naomi thought.

"I didn't want to say this, since I'm not supposed to, but… I lied. Not only does my father work alongside L, but I do as well."

Naomi's eyes widened, taking her a bit to register it. 'This… Light-san works under L. That means that he must probably know where to find him. He could take us there.' Turning to face Beyond Naomi froze. She had seen Beyond making a couple of faces that gave her the creeps, but the one he was making now nearly made her jump.

'He… works… with… _L_.'

Before Naomi could speak Beyond erupted in wild laughter, making both Naomi and Light jump away from him by instinct. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ahahahahahahaha…"

For a man who was laughing, or rather shouting, at the top of his lungs he did have powerful lungs, considering the fact he laughed for nearly a whole minute. Only the lack of air and the slight dizziness made him stop. Even so a few small chuckles escaped his lips as he regained his much needed air.

While Light, Naomi and every other person who had been by hearing range, which were quite a few, looked on Beyond just turned back to Light with a big smile.

"Isn't that just… _wonderful_?"

Grabbing Naomi's wrist as hard as he possibly could Beyond turned, and in an instant began running, with Naomi in tow, away from both Light and the department. Light, dumbfounded, could only manage a "Hey?!" for which Beyond only gave a small response.

"We're in a hurry. We'll see you again later, Light Yagami."

With that, and a few complains from Naomi who had trouble keeping her balance, Beyond had disappeared from Light's sight. Light was even more dumbfounded.

'What… He ran? I thought… What the hell? Damn it. He ran and if I try to follow him I'll just end up looking totally suspicious. He made himself look like an even bigger freak to get away. How dare he do that? Who the hell is he?'

Light began walking, a bit faster that usual, away from there. Last thing he wanted was to be the center of attention. 'He did that on purpose? But… what kind of human being would be that… insane.'

Trying to regain his cool Light massaged his temples. 'Damn… I have to kill them.'

-

Naomi nearly fell to her knees as she tried, and almost failed, to catch her breathe after that little unexpected marathon. For a man who was nearly burnt alive Beyond could sure run. He had been faster than her before and still was. Both her feet and wrist, thanks to his grip, hurt.

Beyond himself had one hand on a nearby wall, while the other rested on his leg. Catching his breathe was even harder for him, as he had been basically pulling both his and Naomi's weight.

"Well… That went well." Beyond gave a slight smile as he gave a look around. During his run he had completely ignored where the hell he was going. They were at some sort of suburb, by the look of it. Not much could be seen aside form a few buildings, streets and a rather large bridge.

"You did that on purpose."

Naomi's voice brought him back to reality. Shifting his gaze at her he only raised a brow. "I mean the laughter." She spoke between breaths. "You wanted people to look our way. That way when you, we ran, he wouldn't try and follow."

Smiling, he just stared at Naomi. She could truly catch on rather quickly. No wonder L had chosen her.

"Guilty as charged." He spoke as he sat down. His body wasn't as it had once been. "It did actually make me want to laugh… the irony of it. But, I needed a distraction and an insurance."

Naomi just stared as Beyond smirked, his gaze looking at the outskirts of the suburb. Resting her back against the wall Naomi sighed. This man was insane.

"You suspect him?"

"I don't know… I saw something, or rather; I didn't see something, in him that makes him suspicious. He has some connection to Kira; that much I'm one hundred percent certain."

'One hundred…' Naomi thought for a moment. It had been a while since she had heard anyone deduced cases with percents. Only B and…

"What does this mean with L?"

"…" Taking a few moments to think Beyond just shrugged. "If that guy really is a part of L's team, it means Kira has connections within them. If he's controlling him, he could be controlling other members as well."

"You don't mean-"

"No… L's probably safe." 'Unfortunately' Beyond signed. "He wouldn't have tried to get us to reveal so much information if he had that much control over the investigation. L, and probably a few others, still aren't under him."

'If he had seen L before, he would have noticed the similarity's between us… That would have made our escape fifty-five percent less possible.'

Looking around Naomi tried to figure out where they could have ended up in. Still, she supposed it was better that they had managed to get away if that guy had really been under Kira's control. Looking back to Beyond, who was sitting or rather crouching down as per usual, Naomi sighed.

"Any ideas?"

"A few…" He did have a few ideas for which they could figure out the next step. The problem was that each one of them had their pros and cons. "This little encounter was also good for us in a way. While we may now be on Kira's hit list, I'm sure he doesn't know our names just yet. Furthermore, we now know of someone who might have some contact with Kira… Meaning that if we figure more about this _Light Yagami_ we might end up figuring out about Kira himself."

"So… investigating Light might prove beneficial. But it won't be so easy… He already knows about us. And we don't know how many other people Kira has under his control."

"I'm well aware of that."

While both of them thought Beyond hand pointed at Naomi, followed by pointing at the floor. While at first she didn't understand the gesture, she caught on quickly.

"Hell no! Sitting like that inside a room was embarrassing enough. I'm not doing that outside." It was beyond her pride, what was left of it anyway. This man had the ability to make her do things she wouldn't normally do.

"You're always so strict… Makes me feel depressed. It did help you think last time."

"Actually…" she gave a faint smile. "Sitting like that, accidentally of course, was what helped me figure out the locked room trick with the Wara Ningyo."

Beyond's eyes widened. "Well damn."

Naomi had actually expected a bigger response, but she had stopped trying to predict his actions for a while now. "So… what now?"

"It's your call."

"Trying to contact L again could be dangerous… Considering Kira might have some connections within. But… If that's true we have to atleast try a warn L. He might be in more danger than he realizes."

"That'd be funny…"

The look he received from Naomi was enough for him to keep his other comments to himself. Her gaze, or glare, shifted from him to the floor. This wasn't good. L was the World's Greatest Detective. Even if it was childish she still had that faint hope that good in the end always triumphed. She couldn't, or rather, didn't want to believe that Kira had the upper hand and was getting closer to killing L. If L died, the world's hope would die alongside him.

Beyond just sighed. "L won't die."

She turned to him, a confused and slightly hopeful expression on her face. "As much as I hate to admit it… He won't go down so easily. I doubt Kira has even seen his face. If he could be killed so easily, I wouldn't have even considered him an opponent in the first place."

"Ryuzaki…"

She looked at him as if she was seeing him for the first time. He actually had some respect for L. 'Ryuzaki… I suppose I never really tried… but it appears I've misunderstood you as well.'

"Something wrong?"

Naomi realized that she had been thinking while looking at him, making it look as if she had been staring at him the whole time. "N-Nothing…" She spoke, feeling a little flustered. She hated when he caught onto her so quickly. Especially if he misunderstood her actions.

"It's settled then…" Beyond spoke as he placed a hand on the floor. Propelling himself with it he stood up, returning his gaze back at Naomi in the process. "You try and contact L and L alone. While it might be a bit difficult I'm sure you're up for it. We should also try and find as much as we can about that Light Yagami without exposing ourselves too much."

"I suppose… So the best way would be to contact him like I did before, by calling Wammy's House." Naomi took out her phone. Checking her contacts she saw that she had saved the number. "We could try and-"

"No. Tracking us through your phone would be a simple matter for someone like Kira. From Wammy's someone, possible Roger, would then have to redirect us to L. If so…" Beyond just thought for a moment, considering what should be done. He wasn't used to this sort of style. "No… It'll never work."

"What?"

"Contacting L. If Kira really has people within, L must have very few who work directly with him. We should refrain from contacting L for now."

"What? We can't. L directly ordered us to go to him as soon as we arrived. Thanks to you, we ended walking to the department, which no one who worked in the investigation was at."

"Wait…" Beyond spoke as he moved closer to her, making her slightly uncomfortable. "They said no one was there?"

"Yeah."

"…" Beyond just turned around. Before Naomi could ask Beyond was already crouched down with thumb in mouth. She wanted to kick him. "Light-kun could have been lying."

Naomi just blinked. Twice. "About working with L?"

"That would make it easier for us… All we have is _his_ word for it… But it's still fifty percent either way…"

"Half?"

"Precisely…"

Naomi sighed, they weren't getting anywhere. "So-" Beyond quickly stood up, catching her a bit off guard. "Fifty is fifty… It's still considered an F."

'Now he's using grades…' She really had a hard time understanding him.

"We better first see whether or not Light-kun works with L or the Kira investigation. Once we know that we can know how we go to contact L." With that he turned to her, his gaze meeting hers a little too intense. "Your call. If you want to contact L first, while I advice against it, I can't stop you. All I ask is to investigate before we move."

Ordinarily she would have thought it over more. L had instructed them to go to him, which she had gone against by agreeing with Beyond's idea. However, she actually agreed with him now. If Kira did have so much control, figuring his movements before they made their own would be the best move on their part. And the best way was to investigate Light.

"Alright… we'll do it like that. Once we know for sure we can contact L. If we figure some connections to Kira that L himself doesn't know about we might end up helping a lot more than if we would have gone directly to L anyway."

"Wow… Didn't think you'd agree with me so quickly."

"What does that mean?"

"You're always so strict."

"I'm not. Besides, I agree with you. It's not like I'm going against my ideals." She spoke as she moved a few steps. "We have to catch Kira, and I think that perhaps that would be the best way to do so."

"…" He didn't speak, not even blink. He just stared. The only thing that changed in his features was a single smile. Not one which he could and had faked so many times. But for once he actually felt like it. Turning around Beyond began to walk. Naomi just cocked her head as she followed. In a bit she was walking alongside him. Before she could ask he spoke. "We better find a place to stay. Considering L won't give us a place until we contact him, we should go somewhere. You do have some money on you?"

"Not much… Don't suppose you do?"

"In prison the only currency is cigarettes. You wouldn't believe how many I had to get so I could eat some jam from time to time. It was a living hell."

Naomi allowed herself to smile. Out of everything in jail she thought would be bad the lack of strawberry jam was what had made Beyond sweat hard. "I suppose I have enough to buy you some of it later…"

How those words came out she didn't know, she hadn't meant to say so. The look Beyond gave her seemed like a little kid who had been told that Santa Clause had just arrived. Creepy, like always.

"If you're trying to enamor me… it's working."

Now she regretted those words even more. "Let's not go that far." He just looked back, a very slight disappointed look on his face. "As you wish."

-

It hadn't hit Naomi until sometime later. A very strong shiver passed through her spine, which even Beyond seemed to notice. While she had no idea as to why, considering that it wasn't that cold, part of her knew. Or rather, she refused to accept that that was true.

It was said that when death jumps you you'll feel a strong shiver. Naomi, as a grown and mature woman, refused to believe such childish ideas. But perhaps in a world with Shinigami who could know your name with a single glance, notebooks that could kill with just a name and a face and the greatest war of intellect the world had ever seen; things like that weren't so farfetched after all…

* * *

One thing that I must clear up... Remember that the canon rules of the Death Note still apply here. If someone's name is written, regardless of what happens later, that person is as good as dead...

So if Light had figured out Naomi's real name during that part and had written it as suicide, regardless of what I could try and do, she would still die. What could change would be the fact that she could be saved from suicide, just to die by a heart attack.

Same shit no... Anyways, thanks all and be sure to leave some more jam...

-Rue


	6. Chapter 5: Resuming

I am so sorry for the wait, I've had quite a couple of thing to do, and not so much time to do them. This chapter is short. I had written this during October's final days, and had decided to resume it after Noverber ended. Why? Well, I'm participating in NaNoWriMo. Yes, your heard it right...

So instead of waiting until december to post, I decided to post this now an the rest will come later. I thank you all that have been pacient, and I sincerly hope you enjoy this chapter. Leave me some jam...

Chapter 5

Resuming

_Despair…_

_She couldn't see where she was. Nor did she know how she got there exactly. The place was dark, nearing pitch black status. She couldn't see more than two feet away. The smell of moisture, the mixture of mud and falling rain was all that she could distinguish, accompanied by the sound of falling droplets. It fell on a particular rhythm, a peculiar sound that actually scared her._

_Eerie, there was no other word for it._

_She tried to move; to walk, to run; but her body wouldn't respond. It felt so cold, to the point where it hurt. Her breathing became harder, she was beginning to shake. Where was she? Why was she here?_

_She was scared, she tried to shout. Nothing… She was mute, she could speak. She tried, and failed. Why?_

_Terrified, that how she was feeling now. Slowly, everything began to clear up. Her eyes widened as an unfamiliar site came to view. The smell shifted from mud to the smell of blood. The sound became louder and louder until she couldn't take it. Suddenly, she felt something around her neck, chocking her, strangling her. A noose found had been placed around her neck, so tightly that it made even breathing difficult._

_Before she could even realize her body began to move. Slowly, her feet taking alternate steps, one after the other, walking towards the edge. The she saw it. She was somewhere dark, but high enough to die by the fall. Die? She didn't want to die. She struggled, and failed. Her body didn't respond._

_No one was moving, pushing her, shoving her. She was walking on her own; and yet, she wasn't in control. She was going to kill herself._

'_No! Someone… please. Help me. Stop me!'_

_She couldn't speak, she couldn't control her movements. Before she knew she had reached the edge._

_Tears spilled from her eyes, as she realized what was happening. 'Is this… how Kira kills?'_

_She couldn't stop it, she failed. She failed to avenge Raye. She failed to help L. She couldn't even help Ryuzaki…_

'_I'm sorry…'_

_One final step and she fell. Her tears fell freely as her heart clenched. The rope straightened, and she felt a piercing pain on the back of her neck. Everything went black…_

She jumped. Her body jolting forwards. Opening her eyes widely she found herself sitting on a couch. She was sweating greatly, and panting desperately. She couldn't recognize the scenery, and she felt a slight panic for a moment, but it slowly came back to her. The motel…

She had stayed here for the night…

Resting her back against the couch, she sighed. 'It was dream, just a… but why? Why was it so real?'

Turning her attention back at the room, she frowned. She didn't have much choice on where to stay, so the first place she found she took. Even if she disliked the fact at staying at a motel with _him_. Still, she had no choice…

Wait… B!

Within moments she was on her feet. 'Fuck, I fell asleep. Damn it, I needed to stay awake.'

She had fallen asleep with the clothes she had been all the day before with. She hadn't plan on it. She had told herself to stay awake and watch him. Now he was no where in sight. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, we'll not much anyway, but that madman could have gotten out with her asleep and gone on a killing spree for all she knew. So she headed for the door as fast as she could…

Then she stopped.

Rue Ryuzaki, better known as Beyond Birthday, was peacefully sitting, or what he calls sitting, starring blankly at her. She was given the creeps when she realized that he was actually crouching on top of the toilet. For a moment she wondered whether or not he actually went like that. She mentally slapped herself for that mental image.

"Morning."

She sighed. "Would you please get out of there."

He blinked, before shifting his gaze to his surroundings. "I happen to find this place rather tranquil. That and there is only this place here and the room. Said room only has one bed and a couch. Ordinary you would have taken the bed, and the couch would have been for myself. Since you took the couch it felt awkward for me to stay on the bed, so I retreated to the bathroom."

She was actually surprised that this man actually felt any awkwardness at all. "I need to go… there, so please get out."

Nodding Beyond stood up, and walked out the door. She walked in, making sure to lock the door. "Oh, by the way." She heard him speak from the other side. She mentally begged he didn't tell her that he forgot to flush. "I got you today's newspaper."

Thank God he… "You went out!" She reopened the door so fast he actually thought she had broken the lock. Staring at him, who was now crouching atop the bed, she waited for a response. It took him a bit to give it.

"Yes."

"Ryuzaki, we spoke yesterday about how we needed to be careful, and move together. Your not suppose to be walking around."

"I'm well aware of that. Just thought I'd get some fresh air."

She reentered the bathroom and relocked it. Turning on the faucets for the shower she wasn't surprised when all that came out was cold water. She considered not showering, since she felt even more uncomfortable bathing with him around, but she did need it. Sighing she stepped in the bath, keeping her mind focused on a very quick shower.

-

"Apparently, there was a 'Shoko Maki' visiting headquarters yesterday. She was asking for you, Ryuzaki." Watari spoke as he placed a few files on a table next to where L sat. "Furthermore, it appears that Mr. Yagami's son, Light Yagami, was there as well. The man who saw her said she left while speaking to him."

L shifted his gaze from Watari to the files which he had just set down. 'Light Yagami, son of Soichiro Yagami.' Lifting himself up L grabbed the files and walked towards a nearby window.

"What's on your mind Ryuzaki?"

"Light-kun's name has been appearing rather too often during this case, I'm forty percent, no, fifty percent certain that he has some involvement with Kira." Turning his gaze back at Watari, L continued. "He was one of the two people on Raye Penbar's list, and I'm sure he had something to do with Naomi not staying at headquarters." 'But that doesn't explain why she didn't stay at the airport…'

"Do you think he may be responsible?"

"Perhaps." L spoke as he continued reading. 'It appears I may have to meet Light-kun personally…'

"We've already found Miss Misora's whereabouts. It's right there on the file as well." Watari just looked on as L turned the pages, fast reading everything on them. He stopped at a particular spot, raising one brow.

"She's at a motel?"

"It appears she has taken, or rather, they have taken residence at a local motel."

L gave a slight chuckle, grabbing another file that rested on a nearby table, where the computer rested.

"Do you want me to send for them?"

"That won't be necessary."

"Why, if I may ask?"

Giving the other file to Watari, who took a look as soon as he got it, L spoke. "A few hours ago there was a fire at a local small mirror shop. Apparently, the fire was started by gasoline. Only the back wall of the shop was badly burnt, and after putting out the fire, that's how the wall looked like."

On the file was a photograph, showing the wall. "I don't understand."

"If you see it like that you won't see anything but a couple of random burn marks. However, if you hold that photo to a mirror, the marks almost read 'DONT'."

Watari just stared as L continued. "It's kind of like a message."

"Not to disagree, but why would this be a message?"

L grinned, narrowing his eyes as he turned. With his thumb in his mouth L spoke. "There was a Wara Ningyo on the scene…"

-

After leaving the shower and getting dressed, Naomi exited the bathroom and reached the room. On said room was seated Beyond, crouching down as usual, reading the newspaper he himself had gotten no too long ago. What was worse was the fact that he had removed his shirt, which now laid forgotten on the edge of the bed. While she refused to show it, she herself had to admit that he was a tad more muscular than she had expected, but he was still too much underweight.

She just sighed as she walked passed him and picked up her purse along with the other essentials needed for the day ahead.

"Seems like the police saw it after all…" He suddenly spoke, causing her to turn towards him.

"Pardon?"

"Oh… no, nothing. Just speaking to myself."

She decided to accept that and turned back to her things. Not much after she managed to acquire everything she needed, she turned back to him.

"We better start to move." Her voice caused him to look up from the newspaper, shifting his eyes towards her. His blank stare still gave her the creeps. Regardless, she continued. "I said we better get moving. We have a suspect. Said suspect might have some power within the investigation team. L might be in danger. We have our time cut short."

While his initial response would have been 'Why should I care' he instead opted to just nod; it was much safer on his part to do so anyway. Seeing Naomi's stare, probably expecting a response, he decided to give her one.

"Very well then… What's our first move?"

"I thought that perhaps we should investigate more on who Light Yagami is. Then perhaps we might see how far his connections with the investigation team go."

"Bad idea." Was Beyond's sole response, shifting his attention back at the newspaper. Her eyes widened. "But… What's your idea then? We need to find out everything we can about that man to see whether or not he has connections to Kira."

"But investigating him directly might get us discovered by Kira all the more quicker." Beyond spoke, his eyes still on the newspaper. "Remember, Kira already has his eyes set on us as it is."

"But how are we supposed to actually contribute to the case if we don't even try it. There's not much else we can do. You said it yourself that contacting L was a bad idea." She stopped to allow him to speak. 'Perhaps he does have a better idea. He is a genius after all…'

"Good point, let's go investigate."

'…' She hated him sometimes. While she held herself from screaming Beyond placed the newspaper down and stood up. Turning to grab his shirt, which laid on the bed, Naomi's eyes widened as his back turned to her.

Naomi placed her hand on her mouth trying to stop the sound she made. Beyond just grinned as her slightly turned his head towards her. "You didn't expect a burn like that to just go away, no did you?"

His back, or what was left of it, was nothing more than burnt flesh. While the doctors had done some work to it, if not he would probably be unable to move, the effects were still clearly visible. Multiple burn wounds covered the area, each darker than the other.

"Our animal instincts…" He spoke, still not facing her. "Even if we want to die, the need to protect or own life is too great. Even I was succumbed to it. Fetal position is a very wonderful thing if you want to protect yourself, but unfortunately you back faces all the consequences."

Covering the scars with his shirt Beyond turned back to her. She was unable to actually say anything about it, her mind mixing the 'He did so himself' and the 'I do feel sorry for him' comments. Deciding to not speak of it Naomi just nodded.

"We better get going." She spoke.

"Lead the way…" He followed.

It was short, I know. Bear with me...

The next update will come early december, so please wait until then. While stupid, this chapter does seem like filler, don't it? I apologize again...


	7. Chapter 6: Confrontation

As promised, here is the next chapter.

Nano was a pain in the ass, but I did manage to finish it. Don't ask about the story, since half of it doesn't even make sense... In any case, I know give you the next chapter of Death Note BEYOND. Many characters will appear throughout this chapter, and do look out for a cameo from a character not from the manga or anime. Very easy to spot really. Read on...

* * *

Chapter 6

Confrontation

"Let's see now..."

Naomi spoke as she gave the mouse a click. Currently, both Beyond and herself were stationed at a nearby cafe, upon requested by Beyond. While she had thought of going somewhere with a computer, like the library perhaps, Beyond said that a cafe was a better place, since it gave them the computer and some food. One stone, two birds.

She wasn't all that hungry, since she had the bad habit of not really eating breakfast anyway, something that Raye had criticized her about. What made her mad, and slightly nostalgic, was the fact that Beyond also criticized her for it, so much so that she was forced to at least order some coffee. Which she was drinking while searching in the computer.

Beyond sat on a chair next to her with some strawberry jam sandwich. And he wondered why she didn't have any appetite. She had however struck a deal with him. If she had at least one coffee, he had to sit properly while they were there. She inwardly laughed as he tried to straighten up, the obvious discomfort visible on his features.

"I feel stupid." He protested like a small child, taking a bite from his strawberry infested sandwich. She just sighed. "You look better like that, almost... average."

"I mean, I can't think like this. I feel all... confused. I can't concentrate." He wondered why he let himself agree to that deal. Let her starve to death for all he cared. Taking a bite out of the sandwich again he continued to stare while Naomi gave the mouse a few clicks, followed by writing something on the key board. One final click and...

"Here we go."

Beyond shifted himself closer to her, while she moved a little to the side to allow him to see. She didn't need him that close to her anyways.

On the screen was a picture of Light Yagami, in what looked like sports clothes, holding some sort of trophy. Beyond gave a small chuckle at this.

"He looked cute."

"That's not what we're looking for." Naomi spoke, pointing with her index finger at a part of the screen. "See. It reads "Here is Light Yagami, receiving the first place trophy of the Junior Tennis Division. Son of Soichiro and Sachiko Yagami, Light Yagami is a resident of Tokyo Japan; and the highest ranking student of his class."

Naomi turned to Beyond, awaiting some sort of response. The latter just stared at the monitor, taking a final bite from his sandwich. It took him a bit to give it.

"So we have a little prodigy in our hands here. Seems fitting." He spoke as he stood up, returning to his famed posture. Naomi sighed as she stood up as well, turning off the computer before doing so. Afterwards, she turned to Beyond.

"If this information is correct, all we have to do is find information of Soichiro Yagami and we find Light. One look in the phone book will suffice." She spoke as she began to walk away, with Beyond following her.

'Well damn...' He thought as he stopped for a bit, placing his thumb in his mouth. 'I didn't even have to intervene this time...'

Naomi, noticing that he stopped, stopped as well. Turning to face him she spoke. "What's the matter now?"

"Oh... nothing Shoko. It's just that you continue to impress me so much."

"Do I now?" She spoke, thought he didn't know if she was being serious or just playing along. Nevertheless, he continued. "You've already devised a method for finding our suspect. And I can see it in your eyes, you already have an idea as to how we're going to investigate him. These past years have made you wiser, your no longer that same woman that used to follow everything I said like a small child would."

"People change." Was all she spoke before turning and continuing. He frowned, that had not been the response he had expected. He actually expected her to argue against his "small child" comment, as even he admitted it wasn't entirely true. While she had followed his clues faithfully, she had doubted and suspected him from the start. Not to mention that in the end she was the one to unmask him, per say.

Following her direction, Beyond took a bit of an impulse to catch up with her. "What's troubling you Shoko? Do you by chance need to get something of your back?"

"It's not like that." She said, closing her eyes for a bit. "I'm fine."

"Oh come on. You can tell me." His voice changed to a lighter toned one, which Naomi was about to question. That is until she opened her eyes, her face only inches apart from a Wara Ningyo that Beyond held in his hands. Moving the doll as if it were a toy of sorts, he mimicked its voice.

"Come on Shoko." He spoke in a voice that she was sure she would have nightmares about. While he tried to sound childish, he actually sounded demonic. "You can tell Wara-Rue anything, and he-."

Wara-Rue, as Beyond had called it, was taken from the latter's hand and thrown in a trashcan. Beyond was actually impressed with Naomi's good aim, as said trashcan was a few feet away.

"I had paid three dollars for that." He lied. He had stolen said doll, along with the other, but kept it with him due to just liking it. He kept that to himself however.

"Be serious for once." She spoke in a stern voice. Beyond opted to just nod, no use trying to go against her. He didn't want to join the Wara Ningyo in the trash.

-

"Alright, everything's set." L spoke, as the five members of the Investigation Task Force awaited orders. None of them, aside from Soichiro who had been previously informed, actually knew what L had 'set'. Even Soichiro had his doubts. With thumb in mouth L continued. "Considering that we know have a suspect to investigate, we are to take the investigation on a different direction."

While everyone awaited a response, L simply took a sugar cube from a nearby tray and placed it on his mouth. Swallowing, he continued. "Here are you first orders gentlemen, listen carefully..."

Facing Soichiro, L spoke. "Mr. Yagami, I've already explained the basis of the operation. You will be accompanying me personally."

"Understood." Soichiro spoke, in a slight depressive tone. No doubt the days of work without rest were starting to show. L gave a simple nod and continued.

"Mogi, I'll leave it to you to escort Mr. Yagami and myself. I'll explain where shortly." Mogi just nodded as L placed another sugar cube on his mouth. Turning to the rest L continued.

"Aizawa and Ukita. I'll leave headquarters in your care. Be sure to keep things under control."

"We'll do our best Ryuzaki." Was Aizawa's response, while Ukita nodded. L turned around, placing yet another piece of sugar on his mouth, this time swallowing it without barely even tasting it. "Well then. As for the actual route we're ta-"

"Ryuzaki." Matsuda's voice cut him off, earning himself a glare from the rest. "I... sorry to interrupt, but what do I do."

L sighed, deciding to crouch down on the chair. "If you wish to be of use then perhaps you should keep Aizawa and Ukita company here. Three heads are better than two... Or so I hear."

Matsuda held himself from frowning, instead he just opted to give a single nod. L just stared back before grabbing the tray where the sugar cube's had rested and pointed it at Matsuda. While Matsuda gave a questioning look L spoke. "If you want to be even more useful, please bring me more sugar cubes. Do that and you'll be my hero for today."

Grabbing the plate while obviously cursing inside his mind, Matsuda stormed away. L just smiled before he turned back towards the rest of the group.

"Now then... Our next course of action shall be..."

-

Closing the front door of his house, Light Yagami placed the key on his pocket, followed by walking out from the lawn and into the sidewalk. The streets were rather busy today, being a Sunday and all, but quite a bit more so than Light had anticipated. Still, every where he looked Light saw, in one way or the other, that Kira was making front page news throughout Japan. Throughout the entire world.

Smiling, Light continued walking. Taking his cell phone from his pocket Light pressed the speed dial. After a few moments, the other line answered.

"Hello?" Spoke a feminine voice, the one Light was expecting to speak to.

"Hello. Shiori? It's me, Light." Light allowed his former self to speak. To speak as an average teen, no longer involved in the judgment of the world's population. "I was calling to see if you were ready. We're still going to the theater today, right?"

"Oh, of course. I was just about to call you myself. I'm already at the bus stop waiting for you." Shiori spoke, adding a little more emphasis at the last word.

"Oh... I'm late, aren't I?"

"By fifteen minutes."

"Damn watch..." He heard her laugh at his comment, and took it as if he were off the hook. Smiling he then decided to change the subject. "Anyway, I'm close by. I'll be there in about-"

"Hey Light."

Ryuk's dark voice filled his ears, thought Light showed no reaction to his presence. Instead he opted to just continue speaking. "...about, five minutes or so."

"I hope so, you're late enough." Shiori spoke, earning herself a small chuckle as a response. Ryuk sighed, opting to just speak.

"I don't care if you want to speak to that girl and not pay me any attention, but what I'm about to say might interest you. Cover your ears if you don't want to hear me, but I'll still say it. You're fun, so I like to see how you spent your days. It's my boredom killer. But if I'm with you, I can't eat apples, otherwise people might see magical disappearing apples. And they might not understand why the apples-"

The glare Light gave him suggested he get to the point, which Ryuk agreed. "Oh, ok, fine. You're being followed again."

Light froze. Mentally, of course. He refused to allow his body to show it. His mind raced with various different possibilities about who might be following him, and two of them were correct.

"Shiori, I'm almost there. My cell phone's batteries are running low, I need to hang up."

"Oh... ok, don't take to long."

"I won't. Promise."

"Ok... See you soon Light."

"Yeah, bye." Hanging off his cell phone Light placed the cell phone into it's camera function. Reaching the corner of the street, where he was to take a turn, he placed the phone on his ear, to fake a conversation. When he turned the corner, he took a photo, when his phone's camera had pointed directly in the direction of the ones following him. After doing so, and during the brief moments where they would not see him, Light looked at the camera.

No one was pictured in it.

'What?' Light looked back through the corner of his eye, but so no one directly behind him. 'If Ryuk said they're following me, it must be true. But... from where exactly?'

-

'That was close.'

Beyond sighed as he had managed to pull both himself and Misora away from view on the nick of time, both hiding behind a wall. 'Nice trick he did, would have been fooled had he not hanged up a few moments before... Still, how did he know he was being followed. Damn it, I was being stealthy...'

"Ryuzaki..."

Having been focused on Light, Beyond failed to notice that on the spur of the moment maneuver he had pulled Naomi towards him in an effort to hide them both. Problem was, that one of his arms laid across her waist, dangerously low, while the other was held firmly on her upper back.

"Knowing you, you would have hit me. Perhaps you're starting to like it. I myself can get used to this sort of position."

"..."

She didn't speak, didn't need to. She placed a hand on his chest, feeling for a moment that he was actually more fit than he looked. Ignoring the little fun fact that had just crossed her mind, she used said hand to gently push him away. He allowed her to as well, otherwise the gentle push would end with him flat on his back.

"Don't confuse what we are, Ryuzaki. We're working together on a case, nothing more." She spoke in a stern voice turning around and going after Light. Beyond stayed there for a few moments, then sighed before following her.

'She isn't really much of a motivator...'

Managing to discreetly reach Light, who had in turn managed to reach Shiori, both Beyond and Naomi hid behind a newsstand that stood a few feet from the other two. Naomi looked on as she could see that Light was wary of his surrounding, looking around in search for anyone suspicious.

"Damn... This might be a pain if we're to follow him this way. Perhaps we should..." Turning around, she saw that Beyond was no where in sight. Before she could find him, she heard his voice, a bit far from where she was.

"Hey there. Long time no see."

Beyond greeted as he extended his hand to salute the other two, earning himself a rather shocked and confused look from Shiori. Shifting his glance from her to Light, Beyond made eye contact with the man for the second time in his life. "It's been a while, Light-kun."

Naomi felt like slamming her head onto the newsstand. 'We're so going to be killed...'

'So... It was him...' Light thought, but didn't show it. Instead, he opted to fake a rather convincing smile. "Rue... Ryuzaki, wasn't it?"

"That's correct."

"Hey. Didn't expect to run into you out here. What brings you here?" Light managed to act as usual, his voice sounding as if he was greeting a friend. 'If he was following me, why reveal himself. Did he noticed that I noticed him? Or, did he just appear to throw me off track. The other woman... Shoko Maki, or her alias at least, is she here as well?'

Looking around Light couldn't see said woman, perhaps Ryuzaki was indeed alone. Beyond gave a rather large smile, following the act and the conversation. "Nothing worth while really. Just thought I'd take a trip around. Perhaps go see what's showing on the theaters."

'His death... I can't see it. He has contact with Kira, I'm sure of it. Ninety-Nine percent certain. All I have to do...'

"Really, isn't that a coincidence." Light spoke up, his hand moving towards Shiori. "We were going to go to the theater as well."

"Really now, isn't that just great." Beyond shifted his attention to Shiori, who didn't look all that please at Beyond's appearance. "And what's your name, dear?"

"S-Shiori." She forced herself to speak, something about this man gave her the creeps. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise my dear." Beyond spoke, as he took a few steps towards the two, stopping when he stood in between them. Placing a hand over Light shoulders, and the other over Shiori's, who had to restrain herself from running away, Beyond continued. "You two lovebirds wouldn't mind me tagging along for a bit, jut until we arrive at the theater. I promise to leave you both alone once where there."

Shiori was quick to try and oppose, trying to sound as polite as she could, but Light spoke first. "Sure, we don't mind... Come with us."

Beyond grinned as he tugged the two tighter.

Shiori almost fainted at her boyfriend's comment.

Naomi, having watched the whole affair from a safe distance, smacked herself with the palm of her hand. 'Damn you... Beyond...'

Shiori was quick this time and grabbed Light by the arm while blurting a "Give us a moment" to Beyond. Turning her attention back to Light, Shiori spoke. "Why did you agree to that? He... He... I can't even describe him. Are you insane?"

"Oh come on, don't be like that. Sure he's a bit... weird, but he's a nice guy. Just give him some time."

Shiori sighed as both she and Light returned towards Beyond, who had kept himself busy by biting the tip of his thumb, much to Shiori's disgust.

The bus came shortly there after, and the trio got in. Light paid for the ride, even for Beyond, who said that he had left his wallet at home. Light actually clenched his fist at that.

Beyond took a seat next to the window, with Light next to him and Shiori as far from him as possible. Even more so when she saw what he actually called sitting. Even Light was slightly thrown of guard.

"So... Ryuzaki." Light spoke up, ending the silence that had formed ever since they sat down. "How's Ms. Shoko doing?"

"Oh. She's quite alright." Beyond spoke, not bothering to look at the younger man. 'You're not getting anything out of me, just who do you think is sitting next to you, eh, Light Yagami?'

Light gave a small chuckle. 'So... I was right. He does care for her...' "Did she manage?" Light continued, trying to see how much he could press the subject. "To contact the person she wanted to contact."

"That's classified." Was Beyond's response, one which Light had not expected. Light decided he would get any information out of this man anyway. He looked like a fool, but he was far from it.

Beyond then turned around suddenly, freaking Shiori out, and causing Light to stiffen. "Speaking of which, did I ever tell you?"

Light turned his head to face Beyond, who made a face as serious as he could. "I am L."

Light's world froze, as time seemed to stop. For a moment he seemed to have vanished inside his own mind. He could barely keep his facial expression from revealing too much.

Beyond just stared, his expression unreadable.

'Is he really. No, of course not. He, I mean, they wouldn't have been looking for L if he was L. Unless, unless they were setting a trap up for me. Do they suspect me? Does that mean that L suspects Light Yagami as Kira? But... how? Could it have been because of Penbar? That woman was his fiancée, so perhaps he had told her... Damn it, what do I say? He could be lying, and yet he could be speaking the truth... Curse him, his expression... I can't read it... I... I-"

"Just kidding."

Light had to restrict himself from stabbing the man with the pen he carried on his pocket. How dare he make fun of Kira like that. While Beyond gave a few light chuckles, Light was actually starting to sweat. Shiori just looked on, having not been able to hear what Beyond had spoke. She decided it was better this way, with the way Light was looking at him.

'Damn him, he played me for a fool.'

"If I were really L..." Beyond spoke up, this time gaining the attention from both Light and Shiori. "The last thing I would do was to ride a bus to the places that I need to go to. Limousines are so much better..."

Shiori just labeled that comment as nonsense, while Light signed. The bus came to a stop, one stop away from the theater. Light took this chance and stood up. Shiori gave him a questioning look while Beyond just stared.

"I'll come right back. My sister asked me to get her today's newspaper..." Light spoke as he pointed out from the window, where a newsstand rested. "I'll go pick it up and come right back."

Shiori nodded, rather unpleased. Beyond shrugged. As Light walked out of the bus, telling the driver he was going to come back inside quickly, Beyond was left with only Shiori as company. It was obvious she didn't want to start a conversation with him, by the way she "politely" separated herself from him.

Looking a top her head, Beyond smirked. 'Shiori Akino... nice name.' Shifting his glance he could see Light in front of the newsstand, Light's back to him. He thought for a moment, until...

'Wait... newspaper? Wasn't there a newsstand where we got on this damn bus?' Looking back at Shiori's name, Beyond looked down at her date of death. He felt his body freeze. 'What the... that reads... SHIT!'

Darting up from the seat Beyond was stopped by Shiori's hand as she grabbed his wrist. A smile crawled into her features as she looked up at him, the numbers on the top of her head lowering at incredible speeds.

"Stay here..." She spoke in a voice different from her own. So dry, so cold. So... dead.

The doors of the bus closed, as Beyond heard the driver beginning to move the bus...

"_Tatsuya Fujiwara - Closes the doors of the bus and drives off in a frenzy, heading towards the Police Headquarters. He protects the steering wheel as much as he can and crashes the bus directly into the walls that make up the department's entrance. He dies on impact due to head trauma..._

Beyond pushed Shiori's hand away, which only earned himself a smile as she spoke. "Long live Kira!"

_Shiori Akino - Stay on the bus and holds onto the passenger next to her when he tries to get off. Tells him: "Long live Kira!" seconds before the bus runs on a frenzy. Stays on the bus while holding onto the passenger. Dies during the accident._

Beyond just has enough time to look once more through the window, and manages to see Light, looking straight at him, with a sinister smile on his features.

'Bastard!'

The bus sets off at incredible speeds, causing both Beyond and Shiori to collapse onto the bus' floor, Beyond cursing while doing so.

People's screams and shouts could be heard as the bus made its way onto its location at incredibly high speeds, while Light only gave a small chuckle. Ryuk, having witnessed the whole event, laugh maniacally while praising Light for his acting.

'Even I didn't think, that he would sacrifice that girl just like that... Light, you're truly something else...' Ryuk thought as he continued his laughter, while Light just turned and walked away.

'Farewell... Rue Ryuzaki.'

-

Upon the commotion, people started to run frantic and shouting as they saw the bus race through the streets, barely avoiding the incoming traffic. One an in particular, smoking a rather large cigar, shrugged. Opening the door to his car the man spoke, much to himself. "What's the commotion this time? Is it Kira?"

Before he managed to enter his car, however, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "I need to use your vehicle, please step aside." The voice was female, making the man chuckle.

"And who's asking for it."

"FBI." Was the sole response.

"Listen lady, I don't care if you are FBI, this car is brand new, so I'm not just about to-" The feeling of a gun being placed on the back of his neck was enough to make him shut up, straightening him up as well.

"Move." Was the sole command Naomi gave him, which he did ever so generously.

-

The phone at the office rang loudly, as Matsuda raced to grab it. Answering the phone Matsuda was met with the sound of random screams, mixed in with the sound of rushing footsteps. Before he could even speak the caller practically shouted at him.

"This is the Japan's police force." The person spoke, sounding a bit out of breathe. "We need back up, ASAP!"

"Actually, this is the Kira In-"

"I know who you are!" The other person shouted. "We have a runaway bus with a few passengers on heading straight through town."

"But..."

"And it's heading in your direction!" The caller spoke with added emphasis on the "your" part. Matsuda sighed deciding to give in. "Understood, we'll get right on it."

"Thanks."

"Whatever." Matsuda spoke as he placed the phone down. After which, he turned and raced towards the others. "Aizawa, Ukita! You'll guys won't believe what's-"

Upon reaching the other two, Matsuda saw both Aizawa and Ukita getting prepared to leave. The television, which was still on, showed the runaway bus racing through the streets, the news reporter speaking about the direction where it was apparently heading.

"...Happening..." Matsuda finished, the enthusiasm gone. Ukita nodded while Aizawa just turned towards Matsuda after grabbing the keys that rested on the table in front of him.

"Let's move."

-

Beyond struggled to stand up, feeling the weight of the speed they were traveling at being pushed into his body. Placing one of his hands on the nearest seat and using it to lift himself up, Beyond managed to get on his feet. His eyes darted towards the driver, who was dead set on driving forward.

'If I stop the driver, the bus stops.'

Beyond moved to reach the driver, but was held back by the other passenger. Turning, he saw Shiori's hand holding onto his leg. She had fallen in-between seats, and one of her legs was already bleeding, but she gave no acknowledgement to it. Her grip, however, was strong, as Beyond struggled but couldn't manage to get loose. Looking back at the driver, followed by at the road, Beyond could see the Police Department not too far off.

'Shit! That's what he's aiming at.'

Lifting his other leg, Beyond connected a solid kick onto Shiori's face, causing even more blood to spill, but managing to loosen the grip. Managing to get himself loose, Beyond raced towards the driver. Grabbing said man by the shoulder, Beyond was thrown back by said man's arm, which had connected a solid hit onto Beyond's stomach. Toppling backwards Beyond fell hard on his back, causing even more pains due to the burn marks which rested there.

Every other car on the road tried their best to move out of the bus' way, with only a few minor hits and scratches made to them. The bus, however, did not even slow down.

Seeing the commotion from a bit afar were the Kira Investigation Team, the three which had managed to get out in time to see the incoming bus. All of them had their eyes opened widely at the sight, with Matsuda even gasping.

"It's heading straight for us." Matsuda spoke, panicking. Ukita looked at him, before turning his attention back at the bus. "No one would be that lunatic... Unless, could it be Kira?"

"..." Aizawa remained silent, his mind racing with various thought's. 'Does Kira... have that much control?'

Shaking the thought's off Aizawa turned to the other two, his hand pointing towards the incoming bus. "Regardless, that bus must not reach us. Ukita, get me-"

Before he could even finish the bus was struck by an incoming car, which struck the bus on the frontal side. The impact caused the bus to turn, collapsing onto the streets on it's side. The other car spun around, until stopping when it crashed, sideways, onto a nearby wall.

"Shit!" Was all Aizawa shouted before running towards the accident. The car crash had occurred a bit far from where they were, so running took them a bit. Both Matsuda and Ukita followed him, running as fast as their feet could take them.

Reaching there in a matter of minutes, Aizawa quickly ordered the gathering crown to separate themselves from the accident. Ukita ran and entered through the bus door that now faced towards the sky. He really paid no mind to the fact that the door had already been opened.

After a few moment Ukita exited. "They're dead."

Aizawa's eyes widened, as he himself jumped into the bus. The driver laid with his head on the steering wheel, blood dripping from his head and onto said wheel. Shiori laid near the end of the bus, her body stuck in-between seats, and her neck having been broken upon impact. Her nose also seemed broken, but not due to the crash.

Aizawa sighed, rubbing his eyes for a moment until he emerged. "Call an ambulance. We need to get them out of here."

Ukita nodded as he dialed on his cell phone, while Aizawa turned to Matsuda, who had just managed to open the door on the other car. "Is the driver alive?"

"Actually..." Matsuda spoke, his voice filled with confusion. His eyes shifted onto the window, which was splattered with blood.

"There's no one here."

-

"M-Mi... Misora?"

Beyond eyes opened slightly as he saw the blurry vision of what appeared to be an alleyway. He could still hear the sound of the crowd that had gathered, and of the incoming ambulance. The last thing he saw before he fell onto unconsciousness was Naomi's face, and droplets of blood that dripped onto the ground...

* * *

Now that's just wrong...

I hope to be able to bring out the next chapter before 2009, if by a few days atleast. We'll see how that works out. Review the chapter if you liked it, flame it if you didn't, or curse at me if a waisted a few minutes of your life. Either way, leave some jam...


	8. Chapter 7: Fear

Well, here's the next chapter. I thank everyone who has read this story and I'm glad you all liked it. Even more so, I'd like to thank all of you for so much jam, since now I have more time to plot and less need to go shopping.

I do want to clear up a few minor doubts I have received, be they by reviews or PMs. One of them is regarding the fact that the Death Note cannot take a life if it somehow endangers another life. In other words, Light can't kill someone if he doesn't have his name.

Regarding that, I'm fully aware. This is Kira during his first murdering sprees, he's still no expert. Even so, Light has been able to bend the rules a few times without actually breaking them in the past, why stop now? As much of a bastard that he is, Light's pretty smart. Light was just trying a little strategy to see if it worked, but it didn't. Tough luck...

I'll be explaining a few more of the rules later on, as some may be slightly edited just for show. Believe me, I hate anything changed just for plot purposes. Neither B, nor Naomi, nor L or even Light will get their asses saved just because I got stuck and I changed or added a rule to save them. If I hate reading stories like that, why would I write one?

Besides, I already have something better in mind... Anyhow, carry on...

* * *

Chapter 7

Fear

"_Tell me..."_

"_I told you I'm not going to tell you." Beyond Birthday spoke as he waved his hand, to add emphasis if for nothing more. Sitting crouched down with a half empty jar of strawberry jam at his side the young boy placed his fingers into the jar and took said fingers directly to his mouth. A smile grace his features as he licked the jam remains from his finger tips, before putting his hand back into the jar and repeating the process._

"_Why not?" A young girl who sat, normally mind you, a few feet from him asked. Short black hair and equally dark eyes made up her features, with only a pair of glasses adorning her face. "Don't tell me you're actually doing me a favor..."_

"_Favor!? Oh please..." Beyond chuckled as he licked his fingers once again, following by placing his hand back into the jar. Much to his dismay, he found out the his precious jar was now empty. 'Damn it all...'_

"_Please what? All I'm asking is that you tell me the date I die. Is that to much to ask?" The younger girl spoke up, narrowing her eyes. When Beyond paid no mind to her, instead opting to try and stick his tongue into the jar, she continued. "You knew both my name and date of death from the moment you first laid your eyes on me, so you should have no inconveniences on telling me it."_

"_Are all you women this annoying?" Was Beyond's reply, figuring out that his tongue wouldn't go any further. "I already told you, I'm not telling you."_

"_You worried I'll get depressed?"_

"_As if." Beyond just grinned as he turned to face the girl, setting the empty jar aside. "On the contrary, I won't give you that pleasure."_

_She just blinked, having not expected that answer. He, in turn, smiled, knowing he had caught her off guard. They were few moments in which he actually managed to do so, he enjoyed them so much. "Knowing the date you die is like being able to control your fate, have no boundaries or limits. To be truly free from this cursed existence we call life... If only ever so much."_

"_How is that?"_

"_How else?" He shrugged, as if she was asking the most obvious question. "Knowing when you die is like knowing no matter what you do, you will not die, at least not until that day arrives. It's like having a short lived immortality."_

"_And you're not telling me because..."_

"_You tell me mine, and I'll gladly tell you yours." He spoke as he stood up, the sound of his joints cracking as he did. "Does that sound fair, hmm?... A?"_

"_B... You know I can't see it." A spoke as she too stood up, dusting herself off in the process. "Unless you want me to kill you right now, then I may be able to give you a correct date."_

"_You, kill me? I'd like to see you try... In fact, I'd like to see you kill anybody, anything. Might be fun to watch." A just gave her companion a glare, before closing her eyes and walking by him. Beyond just smiled. "See... You're too weak to even think about taking a life, much less actually take one."_

_A stopped, her fist clenching a bit, not bothering to turn to face him. "You'd... give anything to know your own death, wouldn't you?"_

"_Yeah, but..." He stopped, thinking for a moment. Before A could speak, he did. "I'd actually rather see the death of the world instead. Now that, would be interesting..."_

_A spoke nothing more, she just carried on walking, leaving Beyond behind. He shrugged, not understanding why she had been so persistent today. What he didn't see, never saw, was the look in her eyes as she left. A mix of sadness and pity, centered around herself and him. He never saw that, his eyes were being focused on the symbols above her head._

'_Why is it A?' He spoke in his mind, wanting to ask her, but being afraid to do so. 'That your date... is in only a few days away?...'_

-

His eyes slowly reopened, his blurry vision taking a few moments until they managed to make out the silhouette of a very dark room. As his eyes accustomed themselves to the darkness he managed to make out more and more of the room's interior, which seemed to be some sort of hotel room, thought a different one than the one he had been staying in. The bed was slightly larger, it actually smelled nice, and it had furniture.

Beyond Birthday moved himself in an effort to lift his body into a sitting position, but was stopped from doing so by a sharp pain that ran through every fiber of his body, causing him to clench his teeth in the process to avoid cursing out loud. After the strong pain began to cease, Beyond closed his eyes for a moment to ease his breathing, following by opening his eyes widely in realization.

Ignoring the pain his body felt, Beyond sat up right and managed to get himself, with some effort, back on his feet. His fist clenched as his breathing deepened. 'Kira...'

He remembered now, everything. He had been with him, Light Yagami, or rather, Kira. They, alongside some girl, had gotten on the bus, and for the second time in his life, Beyond has let his guard down, had allowed himself to make a mistake. And it almost cost him his life.

"Damn it, curse him... Who does he think he is dealing with huh?" Beyond spoke up, at a higher volume than he accustomed to. It was strange, for him, to feel such a mix of emotions. Anger, hate, frustration, embarrassment. He was no stranger to this kinds of emotions, but he hardly ever showed them.

He had been humiliated by Kira, played as a fool when he had been the one trying to make Kira look like a fool. He placed on of his hands on his face, fingers rubbing his eyes not so gently, his smile getting wider as he continued to speak. "What the hell then? Huh! What the hell! He thinks he can do that to me? Who does he think he's dealing with! I'm no common thug!"

Beyond's mind drifted towards that of his competitor, and would be predecessor. L. The man Beyond had tried to surpass ever since he had first heard of him and that damn orphanage. First as a successor, then as a criminal, and now as a un-private detective. But the result was always the same. Failure.

He had not been good enough to succeed L, and thanks to Misora, he had not been good enough to defeat him either. Now that he could beat L at his own game, he had been almost killed if not by Misora's intervention. Kira had made a fool of him, treated him like if he was just one more agent or criminal, not a true opponent. Not like L. L, in a broadcast aired across the world, had played Kira for a fool and managed to pinpoint his location. What did he, the great Beyond Birthday, have to show for it. He was now here, forced to lick his wounds while Kira was still out there.

"Curse that bastard!!" His hand swung around as he toppled the nearest lamp onto the floor, its crash being echoed across the room. Beyond just panted, gasped from breath. He couldn't take this anymore. That bastard had to die, Kira had to fall at the hands of B, not L. He wouldn't allow himself to fail again, to be made a mockery off. Beyond Birthday was no one's fool.

"Beyond..."

A voice he had begun to familiarize with echoed through the dark room, while Beyond remained silent. He just stood there, his back to her, his mind still lost in thought. Naomi just looked on, actual concern shown on her features. She had begun to know him a bit, but not fully. She didn't know how he would react, but the crash she had just heard was proof enough that he wasn't in a very talkative mood. She still stood in a defensive position. This man was not easy to read.

"Misora." His voice caused her to flinch slightly. It had been so long since she had heard him speak with a vice so cold, so dead. He turned himself, facing her, meeting her gaze with his own. Before she could speak, he continued. "Where are we?"

"We're in a hotel... Marion to be exact. It's not too far from where the police station resides, you wouldn't believe how hard it was f-"

"What time is it?"

Her eyes widened slightly, a bit surprised. First time he had ever interrupted her like that, much less with such a voice, that was honestly creeping her out. She frowned, deepening her voice slightly to sound a tad more serious. "It's already one o'clock in the morning, you've been out for-"

Ignoring her comments, Beyond walked by passed her, walking directly towards the door. He was stopped, however, by Naomi's hand being placed on his shoulder. "You're in no cond-"

"Get your hand off of me."

She blinked. Twice. "Bey-"

"Get it off Misora!" Beyond Birthday turned to face her again, pushing her hand away with his own. His eyes had narrowed a bit, now forming a frown, and his glare was fixed directly at her. This caused her to glare back, as she felt herself begin to boil in the inside. "Just what the hell is your problem!" She spoke, raising her voice. Honestly, this man acted like if he were still a child. "Just because you got hurt doesn't mean you have to get all emot-"

She really hadn't seen him move, at least not soon enough. Part of the reason was that she had not fully accustomed herself to the dark just yet. Also, she too had been injured, a set of bandages wrapped tightly across nearly her entire arm. Her reaction time had suffered because of this. Lastly, she had honestly not expected such an action, even from him.

Now she just stood there, eyes wide open, with her gun she carried in her person at all times being pointed directly at her, in between the eyes. It took her a few moments to come to, and when her eyes shifted to meet those of Beyond's, she could hardly believe they where those of the same man she had been with for the past days.

"B-Beyond... You..." Her eyes narrowed, she had lived through many situations in which she had been forced to keep her cool, this was no exception, but she was at a lost of words.

"I will not be made a fool off. I will go deal with Kira, my way. So don't you worry your pretty little head off now." Beyond allowed a smile to grace his features, as he waved the gun slightly. Still, his grip didn't loosen, as Naomi noted.

"Your planning on murdering him." Her voice lowered her eyes drifting towards the floor for a brief moment. Beyond just shook his head. "I wouldn't call it murder. It's just... my brand of justice."

"It's still murder. Even I could have done that. This isn't what we do." She clenched her fist as her voice raised. "We?" He spoke up, as a chuckle escaped his lips. "You mean you and L. Don't compare me to him."

"I'd never, you don't compare." She remained serious, while his eyes filled with rage.

"Don't you dare fuck with me Misora! I will not be made a fool by Kira, I will not lose to L again, and I will not be stopped by you! Don't think for a minute just because I've been helping you that I will hesitate to kill you!" The gun was placed once more pointing directly at her, her expression, however, remained.

"I can't let you go... L entrusted you to me. So far I have loosened my grip on you, but not because I'm afraid of you. Even if I hate to admit it, I do trust you." Naomi's eyes softened, smiling a bit. Beyond's eyes widened slightly, a bit surprised at her statement.

'So that's why...'

"But if you murder Light Yagami, even if he is Kira, you'll just look like a another murderer. Everyone who's died trying to bring him to justice would have done so for nothing."

"Stop being so idealistic. Look at the world you're living in. Even if, _if_, we manage to bring him to justice, many others will have to die. Is that what you want?" He stopped, waiting for a response. When she gave none, nor a change of expression he continued. "I'll stop him my way, interfere with me and I'll-"

"I won't let you do it."

His eyes widened. She interrupted, her facial expression unchanging and her voice as calm as it normally was. The only thing that showed some expression were her eyes, a mix of sadness and disappointment visible in them. His body tensed, as he felt himself loose control. "Just..." He spoke up, through his clenched teeth.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU DEALING WITH MISORA!"

His grip tightened again, this time on the hand that held the gun. Perhaps that's what she needed. She needed to see he was not someone she could control. Kira would die that day. L would lose. B would win. Simple. He just needed to show Naomi he was not afraid to kill if he must, even if it meant her. Still, it was just for show if for anything else. For both her and himself. He knew that that day was not her stated day to die, so he couldn't really kill her even if he tried. His grip, however, tightened a bit more than he had expected. Everything, in his eyes, froze.

Her name, floating gently across her head, wavered. Below it, the stated date of her death changed. Since growing up, Beyond Birthday never could understand what those symbols even meant. He knew they had to be numbers of some kind, constantly decreasing like a timer. He had figured out early on that the least amount of symbols, the sooner the person would die. When he set out to kill someone, he would always look to see if that person had few symbols, since he had begun to learn which ones meant they had less than a day to live. Also, the faster they changed meant the sooner their death would be.

His eyes opened widely, as the symbols above Naomi's head decreased until only two remained, both constantly changing at an incredibly fast rate. He practically threw the gun out of his hand, as if it had burned deep into his flesh, much to Naomi's sudden surprise.

The gun flew across the room, a loud thud being heard on its landing, a few feet from them. Naomi just looked on, surprised, as Beyond placed on of his hands across his face. Both of his hands had begun to shake slightly, but before she could speak, his soft laughter filled the room. Said laughter grew louder and louder, until he seemed to be screaming instead of laughing.

"Now that's, what I call interesting. So I can kill Kira, if I get close enough. I had never tried to kill someone who was not stated to die that day." Beyond spoke up, between laughs. "I always wondered what would happen if I shot somebody who wasn't stated to die on the face. I always thought they'd end in a coma or something; or I'd be unable to do so by some reason or another... funny."

"You didn't know... and yet, you were planning on killing him?" Naomi spoke up when his laughing fit ceased, as he met her glare with his own. "Now I'm not even sure myself, really. I was hoping to be able to kill him someway, if not perhaps I could just torture him a bit, rip an arm or leg off for punishment. But now... I could-"

"Ryuzaki..."

"Damn it Misora!" His voiced raised yet again, although this time Naomi's expression remained unchanged. "Stop doing everything by the god damn book. Don't you want justice to be served. For all the people his killed. For all the people he's made suffer. For your damn fiancé!"

"Don't put Raye into this!" Her voice now raised to match his own, as her expression now bore a slight tone of both anger and sadness. Beyond just smiled. "He... He wasn't that kind of man. Raye would have never wished for something like that to happen."

"But don't you. Did his death mean nothing to you. You'd rather let more people die. Let Kira celebrate killing people on daily basis, while you do nothing about it. You told me you loved Raye, or were those just empty words from a woman who seems to be actually glad that her so-called fiancé was mur-"

He had seen it in many movies previously, the scene in which the protagonist insulted the female lead and in turn was met by a slap in the face. He actually laughed during those scenes. He didn't think Naomi would be that type of girl, and he had been correct. What connected with his face was more of a clenched fist rather than an openhanded slap.

In moments he found himself on the floor, his hands being the only thing holding him up from actually being flat on it. His eyes glanced up at her, but were met instead by the tears streaming down her eyes, even with her efforts not to cry. She brushed them away as soon as they came out, opting to instead speak. Even then, her voice was still somewhat calm...

"I loved Raye... and I still do. I want nothing more than to avenge his death. But if I kill, even if it is Kira, I'd be no better than him. Kira kills murders and criminals because he thinks it's his duty, his role. He kills agents and the police because he's afraid they'll catch him. He kills... for his own selfish reasons." Naomi spoke, stopping for a moment. "I will not stoop down to _his _level, I'm above that. So is Raye. L as well... and I used to think, that even you too..."

"Wha-"

"I disliked you so much you know... when I fist met you. You gave me the creeps, but it was to be expected. I mean, what kind of man hides under a bed and then just crawls out." She said, chuckling slightly. Beyond just looked on, his eyes widen a bit. "I thought you were the biggest freak in the world, and I would have arrested you then and there if I had had my badge with me, but..."

Naomi stopped, her eyes narrowing slightly. "I was forced to work alongside you, solving the clues the murderer had left behind to be able to know his next target. Even as weird as you were, with you, after all those blunder and mistakes I had made during my time working for the force, I actually felt like I was doing something. Despite the fact that you were the last person I'd would ever be want to be in a room with, I began to trust you. You were smart, in your own way... At times, I felt like if I was even speaking to L himself..."

Beyond would have argued, would have shouted, anything. But he didn't. He just looked on, for the first time being able to hear her speak about him, praise him. She smiled again, cocking her head to the side. "In the end, it turned out you were the killer, and I had to run down the stairs to save your ass from burning itself. I got my career back after that, and my relationship with Raye became closer..."

Beyond didn't understand why, of all time, he actually frowned at the last statement, but still, he said nothing. "But even then." She continued. "A part of me still respected you."

His eyes widened, as he moved himself to stand up, but opted to remain sitting. "What do you mean Mi-Naomi? Why?"

"I had heard many things about L, a lot of things. And I knew what happened when someone copied him... You knew as well, but it didn't matter. You had your goal, and you went for it. You challenged L, the greatest detective in the world, and almost won. Even if I didn't agree with you, I still respected that. You had a mission, and you didn't let anything stand in your way. Not even your own death... So answer me this... since when..."

He just looked on, as Naomi's eyes were focused directly on his, before continuing. "...Was Beyond Birthday afraid of death?"

Neither spoke, as silence filled the room. Naomi just looked on as Beyond's eyes shifted from hers onto the floor, his mind seemingly deep in thought. A few whole minutes passed as neither one of them said anything. They didn't even move. Beyond only shifted his index finger from side to side, as if mirroring a ticking clock.

"You know... sometimes..." Beyond broke the silence, moving his head to face her. "I don't know which one of us is truly more dangerous."

As he spoke, Beyond lifted himself up, dusting himself up in the process. He was thankful for the fact that Naomi's fist had connected with his cheek, rather than his nose. He liked to see blood as much as the next guy, but he wasn't too fond of seeing his own. His head shifted as his posture returned to its crooked stance. "We'll do this your way then, and bring Light-kun to justice."

A smile graced her features as she seemed to relax a bit. "Good to have you back, Ryuzaki..." With those words she then turned and headed out of the room, but was stopped in turn by his hand on her shoulder. Before she could speak, he did.

"...Thanks..."

"...Don't mention it."

-

With a few more steps, he managed to make his way through the front yard, and in a few moments, enter his home. Discarding his shoes in favor of the much more comfortable sandals, Light Yagami made his way onto the leaving room. He did, however, notice that his father's shoes were placed on the side of the door. 'Dad's home... He'll get news of what happened to Shiori eventually, so I have to act like I don't know anything yet. I'll let him break the new to me later...'

Walking into the leaving room, Light allowed himself to smile, ignoring his chuckling Shinigami companion who had apparently entered the room before him. "Dad, you're home. About time, I've been won-..."

"Oh Light, you're home." Soichiro Yagami spoke up, turning his attention towards his son. Sitting alongside him were both Sachiko and Sayu, both who also turned to face the young man. "Please sit down for a moment... I'd like you to meet a friend of mine."

Light's eyes widened with utter shock, the only thing that allowed him to keep his cool being the experience he had with these kinds of situations. His body froze and for a moment he felt like he was seeing a ghost. His mind raced as he thought about every possible explanation for this, all the while Ryuk burst out into even more laughter.

"Hi there. I've heard a lot of good things about you Light Yagami..." L spoke up, crouching down into one of the many seats that adorned the leaving room. His eyes met with those of Light, and even he could help grin a bit. "I'm glad to be able to finally meet you."

* * *

About time L made his move. Let's see how Light-kun deals with this...

Thanks again everyone and do leave some more jam, I just can't get enough...


	9. Chapter 8: L

About time I updated, eh? Well, my story is back up and I'm honestly excited. I had a little writer's block in the sense that I knew the things I wanted to do, yet didn't know how to get there. Fortunately, I'm over it. I know I've kept you all waiting too long, so I updated this now and I hope to update the next one soon, since it is already halfway through. Still, who's to say...

I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to send me jam, but poor Rue has bad news. He's out of jam, since he ate it all. Can anyone out there send me some more?...

Either way, I updated the comic of this series on my deviantART account (on my profile) for those interested. Also, if anyone finds the time and is utterly bored could you please check out my original fic on FictionPress (link also on my profile). So for those who like my style of writing (masochists), you may find that entertaining. Let me know what you think.

Enough of my shameless self-advertizing. Carry on and read the chapter...

* * *

Chapter 8

L

Seconds seemed like minutes and minutes in turn seemed like hours for him. He tried his best to keep himself calm, to keep himself focused on the matter at hand, but even he was human. He wasn't perfect. He couldn't stop himself from shivering slightly, nor could he stop himself from turning his right hand into a fist. The very same hand he had used to write the name of his now deceased girlfriend and the bus driver. His breathing also became a bit more accelerated, but nothing that none of them would notice, or at least he hoped.

Light walked slowly, slower than he intended, towards the nearest unoccupied couch, before managing to sit down. He wasn't sure how much longer his legs would allow him to keep on standing. Still, he ignored everyone else in that room, everybody, except the man he was sure he had killed a few hours ago. His eyes locked onto those of L's for a moment, while L just stared for a bit before grabbing a nearby cup of coffee and drinking a bit.

"This coffee is marvelous Mrs. Yagami, if only I were allowed to bring you back to headquarters with us so you could serve it to us when ever we were to need a little boost." L spoke as he took another sip of from the cup, completely ignoring the younger man who had to use all of his inner strength to control himself from strangling the detective.

'He's... ignoring me... Damn him!' Light thought to himself as he closed his eyes for a moment, reopening the quickly. 'I must calm down, something's not right here. He looks just like Rue, same style, same clothes... even that same way of sitting... But, he's different.'

As Light looked on, studying the man before him, L just took his time as he finished drinking his coffee. Soichiro tried his best to keep calm, but found it easier when he saw that his son was apparently acting normally. Sayu just stared at the weird man that seemed to work alongside her father, both awed and a bit disgusted at his "habits", while Sachiko just looked on. L finished his coffee, licking his lips in the process, before turning to face Light once again.

"No then Light-kun, part of the reason I'm actually here is so that I could have a few words with you." Light stiffened as L spoke, sensing both similarities and differences in the way he spoke compared to how Rue spoke.

This man spoke calmly, emotionlessly, almost to the point you couldn't even tell what his true intentions were. The other, however, almost always spoke in a form of sarcasm, expertly blended in with mock politeness that one would have trouble telling it apart. The two, however, shared the same type of vocabulary, as well as many facial traits as they spoke.

'This is no coincidence. They can't be the same person. No matter how good a person can act, this is just way too much.' Light shifted in his seat, an action not unnoticed by L. 'I had my suspicions that Rue could have survived that little crash, since the other woman, Shoko, was surely close by, but still... Are they twins... no, they're not identical. But one of them could be disguising themselves slightly, but... what would the point of that be, either you're in disguise or not, he's not that stupid.'

'What are you thinking about Light? You seem... troubled.' L thought as he kept on staring at the younger man, hardly even blinking. 'I wonder, what have you been up to Beyond...'

"Light-kun?" L's monotone voice brought Light's attention back to the matter at hand. Light just lifted his sight, meeting L's in the process, while L continued to speak. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost..."

'Now he's mocking me...' Light just inwardly sighed, opting to shift in his seat yet again. "Oh, I'm sorry about that." Light spoke up, his voice back to its usual and calm manor. Even L had to admit he hadn't expected Light to speak so casually so suddenly. "It's just that I've had a bit of a long and tiring day, I'm just a little out of it. I apologize for it... So then, what was it you wanted to speak with me about?"

'Quite a little bastard, aren't you...' L just looked on, seeing that this was going to take a little bit more time than what he had wanted. Still, part of him felt slightly... interested in this new development. "I believe you've heard of the Kira case, correct? I'm here about that."

"Kira? Of course, who hasn't." Light spoke up, smiling slightly. "It's rather common, Mr... ehm, Mr..."

"My name's Hideki Ryuga, but since I'm here on police business, you can refer to me as Ryuzaki." L gave a small smile while Light cringed on the inside. Still, he refused to show it.

"Right, Ryuzaki. Still, I don't see how I can be much help. While I have helped the police with petty crimes and minor cases, this is a little bit, beyond my limits..." Light spoke, carefully studying the older man without it being too obvious. 'What are you playing at here...'

'Nice choice of words...' L thought, particularly at his choice of using the word 'beyond'. Still, he was ninety percent sure it had been coincidental, just another one of fate's occasional jokes. Even so, he couldn't help but grin. "On the contrary, I believe you may be more help than what you think. Call it instinct or whatever, I honestly believe you'll be one of the ones there the moment we capture Kira."

At this moment, Sachiko stiffened, upon hearing what she though she had heard. Moving slightly to intervene in the conversation and to try to stop this "Ryuzaki" from involving her son in such a case was stopped by Soichiro, who placed an arm on her shoulders, shacking his head. Sayu just blinked, a bit confused on just what was that was going on.

"Listen, I'd be honored to be able to contribute my part into helping catch Kira, since I really don't approve of what he's doing, but even so..."

"The more people that contribute, the better it is... that's they way things are." It was L's turn to shift in his seat, while Light just looked on. "Carelessly, justice will prevail in the end, all we must do is prevent as many deaths as possible before then."

'I agree... justice will prevail, my justice.' Light shifted his eyes to meet those of his father's who seemed to be rather focused on him. His mother and sister, however, seemed more focused on the other man, much to the ignorance of said man. "A bit philosophical if I do say so myself, but I agree. Like I said, I'd be ho-"

A ringing noise interrupted Light, as he soon figured the cause of the ring. L took out his cell phone, holding onto it in a rather peculiar manor, another thing that reminded him of Rue, before answering it. "Hello."

Despite trying his best to overhear the conversation, all that Light managed to hear from the other line were inaudible gibberish. He wasn't given much opportunity thought, as L hung up the phone as soon as he had picked it up. "It seems like my ride is here." L spoke up as he lifted himself from his crouched down position, stepping of the couch, and onto the floor. Turning his attention to Soichiro, L spoke. "You may stay here for tonight Mr. Yagami, but I expect you back at headquarters by tomorrow before noon."

"Understood." Was Soichiro's sole reply as L gave a small farewell to the other members of the family and walked out of the house. It didn't take Light long to lift himself of as well and follow L outside.

"Ryuzaki."

"Yes." L spoke as he turned around, having on foot on the interior of his limousine already. "Is something on your mind Light-kun?"

"Not really, it's just..." Light stopped briefly, as his mind raced. "I've met someone who reminds me of you, particularly in the choice of wardrobe."

'Smart...' L thought as the younger boy spoke, nodding slightly. 'You probably have it figured that I know you met up with B previously, so you tell me about it so that you don't seem to be purposely hiding it. Not bad...'

"You must be referring to Rue Ryuzaki, correct." L hoped to see some sort of reaction from the other man, but said man gave none. He had to give him credit for it.

"Yeah, that's the guy. I met up with him a few days ago after I brought my dad some lunch he had called for. For a minute, I mistook you for him." Light now waited for an answer, some sort of clue on who was who. If L was pondering the question, he gave no emotion.

"I suppose its easy to mistake the two of us, but I assure you were not the same. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen him in a while. We've been... busy."

"I guess that's... understandable."

With no more words spoken, L made his way into the limousine and closed the door, leaving Light there to ponder the current situation. Before the limousine began to move the window where L had been seated slowly opened up, as the man in question shifted his head to look at the younger man. "By the way... I'm L."

As the window closed and the limousine slowly drove away, Light could feel the grin of L's face as he just looked on. For lack of a better response, Light had chosen to remain quiet, while pondering whether this guy was the real L or not.

"Now that was interesting, bet you didn't expect that, did you Light?" Ryuk spoke as hovered next to Light, while Light just narrowed his eyes. Looking with the corner of his eye, seeing that no members of his family were currently within hearing range, he spoke to his Shinigami companion.

"L... and Rue Ryuzaki as well... There not the same person then, nor are they related. I was almost fooled..." Ryuk just looked on as Light gave a small smile. "You figured that out so quickly, not bad."

'Actually Ryuk... I was uncertain. But you aren't, are you. You saw both their names with your Shinigami Eyes, so you now they're neither the same nor related. Really Ryuk, you're like a child sometimes, so easy to get information out of.' Light turned and began to walk back into his home, as the Shinigami behind him followed. 'I need to start getting my act together. These two might be troublesome. Still... I've got a few tricks left that might just work...'

-

'So... you made your move already, eh?'

Beyond looked on from a bit afar, his back rested against a light pole than brightened the otherwise dark and gloomy area. Having arrived at the scene just a few minutes ago, he hadn't been able to get a good view on just who it was Light Yagami had been speaking to, since said person had already entered the limousine by the time Beyond could take a close enough look. Still, he knew deep down L had made his move, since if by this time L hadn't begun to suspect Light as Kira, then Beyond saw no point in this rivalry. Still, he had to admit he felt a tad annoyed by the fact L had calmly drove away from Light during his first meeting with him as opposed to running away laughing like a maniac with Naomi in tow. 'Yeah... I've got more style...'

"That person..." Beyond shifted his gaze to meet Naomi's, who was busy looking towards the Yagami household. "Could it have been...?"

As she stopped and turned to face Beyond, he could feel her questioning gaze practically asking if she was right. "I'm pretty sure it was. L has his own methods of doing things, so I'm not surprised. Still, this means we better move a bit more. We don't want L catching Kira before we do, now do we?"

"I suppose not." She spoke as she smiled. As she did, Beyond's eyes shifted from her face to above her head, where her name floated above her head, with quite a few Shinigami numbers slowly changing below it. He couldn't understand why, but he felt so attracted to those numbers. He wanted, no, had to see in what way they ended. How will Naomi Misora die? he didn't know. He wanted to know, wanted to be there when she did. But, he wanted it to be when those numbers ran out, not because some god-complex killer got her first. He'd make sure of that.

"Rue? Is something... wro-"

"Oh no. Don't mind me." He interrupted, the least he had to explain his thoughts to her the better. Shifting his body weight from on side to the other, thereby changing his hunch from one side to another as well, Beyond turned his gaze back at the Yagami household. "I was just thinking about the miracles of life..."

"I find that hard to belief." Naomi spoke up, before turning away. "Anyways, perhaps it is best we leave from here, don't you think so?"

"True, that bastard does seem to have a spider-like sense to anyone who's spying on him. Don't really understand why though..." As both Beyond and Naomi began to walk away, Naomi waited until they were a few blocks away to stop. Having stopped next to a latest electronics store, televisions out on display through the window. Said television sets were showing the latest news, something about Kira no doubt. Beyond simply gave her a questioning look. "We really need to figure out where it is we're going to stay at. I don't have much money on me, and every other one of my possessions are probably under L's care."

"That does pose a problem." Beyond spoke as he placed his thumb on his mouth, while Naomi just looked on. She narrowed her eyes as he pondered the situation, knowing fully well that Beyond had already thought of a solution before she even asked. If he was stalling in answering it meant that whatever it was he thought of wasn't going to please her. "We're not stealing anything."

"Close... but not what I was thinking. Though, I admit it did cross my mind... more than once..." He spoke as he turned towards her, a slight smirk visible on his features. Naomi felt a shiver run down her spine; she knew that look. "Rue, what are-"

"You do have parents here in Japan, don't you?"

She blinked. Twice. Did Beyond really expect her, Naomi Misora, ex agent who worked under so many cases, even one under L himself, who's parent had been so happy and proud of her when she had spoke of her engagement to Raye, to simply barge in asking for a room. Most notably, to bring another man who wasn't her recently deceased fiancé, a freak of a man no less, alongside her and ask for him to stay there as well. No way in hell!

"There's no way in hell I'm doing that." She spoke firmly, crossing her hands across her chest and narrowing her eyes. Beyond had to admit she did have a certain "charm" to her when she got pissed, he liked it.

"Don't be like that. We'll tell them I'm your current partner in a case, which is somewhat true. Heck, L even gave us the badges." He spoke as he took his out, waving it across he face. "Either that or tell them we've been fucking around. That way the won't start imagining things since we already confessed."

Her eyes narrowed further as her fist clenched, Beyond just simply took a step back for precaution. Waving his hands a bit, Beyond sighed. "You could never take a joke. I still stand by the "we're partners" thing. Besides, no way in hell you'd fall for a guy like me, right?"

The way he had said that sounded like a mix of mockery, fake pity and a slight flirtatious tone; all the more reason for Naomi to clench her fist tighter. "Isn't there anything else we can do, surely you have thought of something else."

"I told you already, but you said no stealing. Either that or sleeping outside. Or we could get a single motel room, they are cheap. You do have some money right? To tell you in advanced, I won't sleep on the floor, bad back and all..."

"We'll go to my parents and I'll ask for some money there, despite how much I dislike the idea. I'll use the money I have left to get ourselves a cab, since it is a bit far from here."

"That works."

"Right..."

Before either could move, the television sets showed a special news bulleting. As the logo of Sakura TV flashed across the screen, said screen shifted to show another logo, apparently hand drawn, while a voice began to play in the background. Both Beyond's and Naomi's eyes widened, as neither could barely speak.

"Is that...?"

"The hell!"

-

As L walked back into the meeting room where the remainder of his team, excluding Soichiro, where supposed to be at, he could help but smile. 'Light-kun, you really are an interesting person. I can think of no one else to fit the part of Kira better than you. This is getting very-'

He stopped mid thought as both he and Watari entered the room, where his team were all fixated upon the television screen. Before L had even enough time to speak, Ukita turned to face him, while the others just keep looking. "Ryuzaki..."

Said man's eyes widened, as he saw just what was airing, his fist clenching slightly.

"That's..."

-

The word "KIRA" flashed across the screen, written in Cloister Black font no less, mirroring and mocking L's signature "L". In a voice that also matched L's own disguised one, "Kira" began to speak. "Greetings, I am Kira."

While Ryuk's laughter filled the air, only a smile adorned Light's features...

* * *

Now, who could that be...?


	10. Chapter 9: Motion

It's back! It's back! It's back!

Aren't you all so happy you waited for me. Yeah, I thank both of you for waiting so long. As for the rest of you that so happened to be passing by, my thanks to you as well. Sorry if you have to reread something to know where this story was headed, but, without further ado, read on...

* * *

Chapter 9

Motion

"So… What do you think?"

Light closed his eyes as he pondered for a second. He didn't want to answer too quickly nor wait too much. He allowed a few seconds to pass, reviewing what he would say in his head just to be on the safe side. Having just viewed a tape sent in by none other than "Kira", or so the world thought, Light knew what L was thinking and one mistake or slip of tongue would be enough to ruin everything. So, he played along…

"That clearly has to be an impostor." Light declared, trying to add a hint of doubt into his statement. He wouldn't want to sound too sure in front of L, but he knew nobody else would pick the tone up anyway. The rest of the task force was there as well, including his father, which he had just been "introduced" to. No doubt in his mind that all those names had been aliases. Disregarding the thought, he continued. "No way Kira would be that… that…"

"Idiotic?" L suggested, while Light only raised a brow. How much this man annoyed him, almost as much as that other Ryuzaki… Almost. "I was going to say careless." Light added, turning his attention back at the poorly drawn "KIRA" on the screen. "But I guess that works too…"

-

"You had us all worried dear…" Mrs. Misora spoke up, placing the cup of coffee inches away from her daughter, taking a seat at the opposite end of the table. "I mean, after what happened to Raye…" She continued, while Naomi only slightly narrowed her eyes, said eyes locked on her reflection on the cup. "You disappear without even speaking to us. For a moment, I had a very bad feeling something could have ha-"

"I'm fine." She interrupted, while her mother only looked on. She didn't mean to sound angry or mad, but now was not the time to be preaching her. Even if it was out of concern. "I've just had a lot of work to do, I'm sorry for worrying you both."

"Dear…" Naomi took a sip from her coffee as he mother stared. Naomi wanted to speak, to say something, anything. Lie to her about how she was sure she would be alright. "I really wish you'd reconsider this whole Kira ordeal. It's far too dangerous."

"He got Raye…" Her fist clenched, and Mrs. Misora simply looked on, deciding now was perhaps not the best time for this conversation. Deciding to try and lighten the mood, she changed the subject. "Even so, it's still good news you got reaccepted into the force. If it wasn't so dangerous maybe I could brag about my daughter having such strong connections to L himself…"

'You have no idea…' Naomi thought, having skipped out on a few details regarding everything she had done as of late, for her parents sake as well as he own. Still…

"And your new partner… he's quite a character, isn't he?" Mrs. Misora eyes widened slightly at the look her daughter gave, albeit briefly. For a moment she thought perhaps she had added to much sugar to the coffee, fully knowing her daughter's distaste for sweets. Then again. "He's…" Naomi began, another piece of information she kept from her parents. "…Unique."

Naomi's eyes shifted to behind her, away from the kitchen both her mother and herself were currently at. Having had no other place to stay, she reluctantly, very reluctantly agreed to bring Beyond and herself to stay at her parent's home, which wasn't too far off. After having threatened Beyond with things even he had to admit he hadn't known them to work that way that is.

Live and learn.

Still, Beyond had been true to his word, for the most part, and had been respectful and acted like an agent, a rather weird and creepy one at that. While her parents had been skeptical, their trust in Naomi's judgment, and sanity, was the only thing that allowed them to greet the man properly and allow him a place to stay. Which, while they had agreed to do so for just one night, they had stayed for a few more days afterwards, much to Naomi's dismay.

Beyond Birthday, murderer extraordinaire and the man responsible for the first case which launched Naomi's career which in turn ended his, was currently crouched down on one of the living room's coaches, eyes focused on the television set. On one of his hands rested a jar of strawberry jam, which he had practically begged Naomi's parents to include in their shopping list, and a spoon on the other. He had at least had enough decency to use one, instead of the usual finger-licking thing, though was holding onto it like some sort of butchering knife. Jamming it in and out of the jar mimicking his good-old days as BB. He chuckled slightly, as one of his favorite scenes from Akazukin Chacha was played. Imagine his surprise when he found the DVD collection her parents had. "I have to admit." He spoke up, to the other man in the room, busy reading the newspaper. "If I hadn't seen it myself, I'd say you and your daughter weren't related. You have such fine tastes."

Mr. Misora eyed Beyond for a moment, a mixture of suspicion and genuine concern for the younger man before him. Had he not come accompanying his daughter, with a badge at hand, they wouldn't have let him come a mere inch into his home, let alone sit in his living room watching his films. The nerve.

"You're quite a peculiar man. Aren't you Ryuzaki?" Naomi's father spoke up, while Beyond only looked on. He could tell his presence wasn't too well like, if the look on the elder man was any indication. Now, at least, he knew where Naomi had inherited her glare from. "How long have you been working for the force?"

"Not much really." Beyond spoke up, which was not far from the truth. "I was just an unprivate detective before now, Naomi was the one who gave me a, what you say, "push" into these sort of work line."

"I see." Mr. Misora decided not to question the whole "unprivate" thing, since he supposed it had been a mistake from the younger man. "So how, exactly, did you first meet Naomi."

"Not that long ago really, about two years in fact. We both got mixed up in the same case, working for different people of course. Naomi must have mentioned something about it, the B.B. Murder Cases." The older man's eyes widened, turning towards Beyond. For a moment, Beyond felt a slight chill run through his body, but before he could ponder it, the older man spoke. "Yes, she did. One thing she made clear was the killer behind it all. While she didn't go into specifics, she did say he had started masquerading as a detective working under one of the victim's families. She never mentioned anyone else…"

Beyond's eyes widened, nearly swallowing the spoon he had just shoved into his mouth. 'Crap!' His fists clenched and he felt himself sweat slightly, trying his best not to avoid eyes contact with the man who had his full attention set on Beyond. "She didn't mention me…" Beyond began, trying his best to sound natural. "Now that's… hurtful…"

'What the hell is wrong with me? First Kira, now here. Why am I dropping my guard so much?' He mentally berated himself. 'Did all that time in prison make me that dull?'

"I would suppose that someone assisting her on the case would have been something she would have at least mentioned in passing, yet I don't recall her ever doing so." He added, crossing his arms across his chest. Beyond just looked on.

"I suppose." He spoke up. "But you see, while I did get mixed up with her, in reality I… well…"

"Don't let him fool you dad. He didn't help me one bit." Both of the men's attention was brought upon Naomi, who had ever so casually walked into the living room and had taken a seat next to her father. "Ryuzaki had been hired by Eraldo Coil much as L had hired me. Instead of a rival as I would have expected, he was more of a nuisance."

While her father just stared, Beyond relaxed and smiled. 'Coming to the rescue yet again, eh?' Acting along, to save his own skin anyway, Beyond carried on. "And yet." He spoke. "You didn't even have the courtesy to even talk about me to your folks."

"Of course not. I hated you."

Honest.

"So what made you join up with the force, having someone as Eraldo Coil as a hirer is almost as good as L." Beyond just looked on at the man, hiding his annoyance.

"I suppose it's a matter of doing what's right." He spoke up, while Naomi rolled her eyes. "This Kira thing has gotten out of hand, and every available personal was offered a chance to join in. And as I said, I joined not to long ago, so I accepted."

"I see…" Mr. Misora returned his attention to his newspaper, certain that any suspicions he had were more about being cautious about his daughter than anything else. When he thought about it, he mentally chuckled. Why in the world would his daughter even be with a serial killer? Beyond just stared, wondering just how much had this man gotten right and was now thinking he had it all wrong.

His attention was brought back when his DVD was stopped and the channel was changed, now showing the news. "Hey!" He practically shouted, while Naomi just narrowed her eyes. "I was watching that."

"We have to watch the news. You know what's going on lately. Kira's supposed messages and all." Beyond eyes narrowed, sticking the spoon back into his mouth. "While Kira is important and all." He spoke up, spoon in mouth. "Akazukin Chacha is even more so. Kira can wait; you know how long it's been since I last saw of it."

"But isn't Kira your priority?" Naomi asked, annoyed. Beyond just stared. "No, it isn't."

"It should be." Her father interrupted. "Aren't you an agent sent down to track and catch Kira?"

"Then it is."

Flexible. Naomi and her father both sighed. How much more would they have to put up with this man…?

-

"Things are getting out of hand…" Naomi spoke up, sitting on her bed, eyes narrowed. Beyond was seated, normally for once, on a chair next to her, eyes gazing around the room that had once been her. Why didn't her parents let him stay here too, and not that blasted coach. "Kira's power, is there really more than one?"

"Looks like it…" Beyond spoke up, eyes shifting towards the roof. Now that both he and Naomi had gotten a chance to be alone, and speak about the case without skipping on the details or sugarcoating anything.

"Beyond…" His attention was refocused on her again, while she remained unmoved. Shifting her own view to meet his, he could see how much this ordeal had affected her. She looked tired, beat and as if she had been crying herself to sleep all these days. But, he knew better. She wouldn't cry. One of the reasons why she looked like that was because she held in everything.

'Idiot…'

"I need to know…" She spoke up, while he cocked his head. "What do you see?"

His eyes widened, as the thumb that had been placed on his lips was slowly removed. "W-What do you mean…" He asked, but he already knew. She was too smart not to have noticed, or have thought at least.

"When I first visited you." She spoke, while he looked on. Something about the way this conversation was going to go did not suit him well. "You told me that people killed by Kira had more to live. That you could predict the death of anyone but Kira's victims."

"Did I say that?"

"Beyond!"

He clenched his teeth, turning away as to not meet her gaze. He sighed, fully knowing he had to tell her sooner or later. "Ever since I first remember, I've always been able to see something people are normally incapable of seeing." He began, while Naomi just looked on. "At first I thought it was normal, and I really didn't give it much thought as to what those symbols meant. But…" For the first time in her life, Naomi actually saw a form of grief in Beyond's features, but before she could say anything he continued. "I soon learned what the meant. Thanks to a hands-on demonstration courtesy of a thief using my family, I learned that I could see the death of all those around me. Their name as well…"

"Death?" Naomi blinked. "What do you mean, like some sort of sign that tells you when they die?"

"More like a regressing timer, which when it drops to zero, the person dies." As he explained Naomi had to struggle to believe all this. It was hard to do so, but with everything she had lived through, she had little to doubt. "This is how I picked my victims, to minimize the effort, since I thought I couldn't kill anyone whose time wasn't running out. You proved that theory wrong, at least, hypothetically so."

"And since Kira kills when someone is not stated to die… That's why you knew he killed by other means other than heart attacks, right?" A nod was her given answer, as she further pondered. "Then tell me this…" Naomi got a bit closer to him, leaning over, which made him raise a brow. "What does my death say?…"

"_B… When will I die?"_

His eyes widened as he instinctively pushed himself back, which resulted in his chair tripping over and him landing flat on his back against the cold hard floor, earning himself a rather strong remainder of the burn marks that still adorned his back. Cursing to himself he pushed himself back up, while Naomi seemed a bit worried. "Beyond! What happened? What's wrong?"

"What's wrong you say?" He frowned, while Naomi looked puzzled. "What do you th-?"

"Naomi, is everything alright? I heard a crash." Her mother's voice echoed from downstairs, while Naomi spoke. "It's nothing, don't worry. I just tripped and the chair fell over."

Turning her attention back to Beyond hoping her mother would get too overprotective of her; she awaited some sort of response. He just sighed. "I'm just not fond of the whole tell-me-my-death sort of thing. I ain't a fortune teller."

"What, that's childish." She preached, frowning. "Knowing when I die will help with the case, that way I know nothing else will kill me other than Kira, which is what I've been trying to avoid in the first place. What use will it be if I'm destined to choke or slip and fall tomorrow before I get anything done? I shou-"

"Listen to yourself." She stopped, as Beyond glared, having regained his compulsion. "You're talking as if after we get Kira you'll just roll over and die. No one, and I mean no one, can possibly live and think straight knowing the day they die, no matter how much the think otherwise." Not even me. He didn't say the last part, did think it was necessary. Naomi just stared, before smiling lightly.

"Maybe you're right. But you still haven't proven it to me."

"I'll do so when the time is right, when Kira gets caught." He spoke up, before turning back to face her. "Do you trust me?"

Her eyes widened slightly as she shifted her glance to look up at him, seeing that he had a serious expression for once. "What's with that all of the sudden?"

"I promised you I'd catch Kira, your way. I intend to do so, but I'll have to flesh him out first, my way." Naomi stood up, taking a few steps towards him, while he just looked on. With both of them, standing face to face, their height seemed almost the same. Thanks to his broken posture, he was a bit shorter than her, but not too much. "There are things L can do, that I can't. But…" He stopped, inhaling deeply before continuing. "…There are also things he can't do, that only I can."

"I know…" His eyes widened, having not expected her to agree so easily. He hadn't even told her everything yet. Before he could ask, she spoke up, her voice trembling very slightly. "Before I went to see you at your prison, I thought to myself. To catch a killer, you need a killer. I knew there were things L couldn't do that you could, that only you can…"

She placed her hand on his chest, which made his eyes widen even more so. She was so close to him, to his body, that he felt a slight tingle across his body. This woman, like this… "Naomi… You do understand what I'm saying."

"Yes." She answered, smiling. "I will follow Light. If he truly is one of the two Kiras, I intend to have prove to back me down. So if we must separate in order to bring him to justice, so be it…"

He smiled, genuinely. She knew, even before he did. "And I will track down Kira, who ever he may be, both of them. I'll smoke him out the way only I can." He stopped, as her hand moved a littler higher, placing itself on his face, on his cheek. She got a bit closer, shutting her eyes. His widened, shocked.

'She…!'

A small slap was heard as she gently smacked his face, leaving him dumbfounded. "I-I… You… I hate you…"

"Be careful alright." She turned from facing him, he nodded, and Naomi could have sworn she heard a 'you too' come out of him, but it was too soft for her to properly hear it. She quickly went into the bathroom which was on her own room, and by the time she came out, Beyond Birthday was no longer there. She sat on her bed, crossing her fingers. She had already passed the stage where she would ask herself whether or not this was wise. She had to trust him, trust that he did the right thing. No. She did trust him. More than she even trusted herself right now.

Looking to her side, she saw that her window had been opened, Beyond having apparently exited through it instead of the humanly way out the door. Next to the window rested the last jar of strawberry jam…

-

"Light-kun." His mother called out to him, while the man in question walked down the stairs to see what she needed. His eyes widened when he saw that there was another guest in the house, standing outside the doorway. He hadn't been expecting guests.

"Light-kun." His mother repeated, pointing to the guest. "This lovely young lady says she's a friend of yours, she's asking for you."

"Uhhhh…" Sayu butted in, something which Light had already gotten accustomed to. "Light has a girlfriend, you never tell me anything anymore."

While Sayu and Sachiko smiled at the guest Light only narrowed his eyes. Ryuk, on the other hand, couldn't help let out a chuckle.

Misa Amane only smiled.

-

The entire group of the task force was dumbfounded; mouth agape at the sight before them. None of them, not even Matsuda who was the most open minded of the group, had even expected anything like this to occur. It all seemed too farfetched or fictional to be real. Standing before them was a tall, yet slightly slouched young man with black hair and dark eyes, pale skin and wearing a rather familiar getup composed of a white longed sleeved shirt and worn-out jeans. It was L. It's just that, it wasn't L. "Evening gentlemen." Beyond spoke up, since he could see everyone there was in a complete state of shock.

"May I speak to L?…"

* * *

With this chapter out of the way, I think I can safely say that the first "Arc" of my story is done, since starting next chapter the story will begin to move further and further away from Death Note canon. If I calculated correctly, there should be a total of three (3) arcs, so yeah. Stay tuned...

R&R!


	11. Chapter 10: Declaration

ARC TWO (2) IS… Withheld until the next chapter…

Greetings everyone. I've decided to change the second arcs start to the next chapter. Why? Because I feel this one ends things better than the last one did.

BTW, this chapter was posted as the beginning of the arc and was that way for months, so it's not your imagination playing tricks…

Anywho, thank one and all for your patience and reviews/faves/alerts or plainly just taking a few minutes out of your lives to read what I took a few (quite a few) minutes out of my life to write. I know it's far from perfect, but still... Read on and leave me some jam...

(Rue-Ryuzaki is accepting any type of jam now, but _**strawberry**_ is still his favorite... Please have your credit card ready when you make a donation.) XD

* * *

Chapter 10

Declaration

Beyond Birthday, murderer extraordinaire and self-appointed greatest (criminal) mastermind in this whole God-forsaken universe, would blatantly point out that he too enjoyed the simple things in life. Be they a good old jar of jam every now and then or a good read of his favorite manga, he always took (or tried to take) time to enjoy the simplest of things. This, most than anything else, was why he was enjoying himself so much right now. He was the center of attention, after all. Six pairs of, rather wide, eyes where currently staring down at him; mouths agape. With a simple quick scan of the room's interior, Beyond had learned and memorized each of the names of the men standing before him, all the while the six of them where at a loss of what to say or do. They seem scared, for some reason. Or maybe it was shock? Either way, Beyond just smile, oh how he was enjoying this...

The first one he laid his eyes on was the youngest looking of the bunch, Matsuda Touta being his name. A rather dumb name, Beyond would think, but it did fit the man that had a rather stupid and moronic-looking face...

Another one of the men there, Mogi Kanzo, was rather well built, especially if compared to Beyond's rather scrawny physic. He, too, seemed at a lost for words, having the same dumb look in his face as the younger one...

The one next to him, named Ukita Hirokuza, gave Beyond a slight chill. For a second, Beyond thought that perhaps this man had cheated death and was standing before him for some reason, but Beyond mentally ignored that...

Then came Aizawa Shuichi, who was actually frowning at him. At this Beyond gave a slight smile, at least one of them seemed to have some balls and had actually reacted accurately, at least if even a little...

Ide Hideki came next, which made Beyond wonder why every single one of them was male. Really, was L afraid of women? Noticing that this man too was frowning, Beyond just stared on and passed to the last of the bunch...

His eyes widened slightly at the last of the group, not just because this man had seemingly regained his compulsion and looked somewhat calm, but because his name was Soichiro Yagami... 'Yagami...' Beyond thought, his full interest on this man now. 'Could he...'

"What the-?" Matsuda blurted out, blinking more times than humanly necessary. Beyond just eyed the younger man for a moment before turning his attention back at Soichiro, thumb in mouth. This little action did not go unnoticed by the group.

"What gives?" This time it was Aizawa who spoke up, taking a wary step closer to Beyond. "Who the hell are you? And more importantly, how did you get here?"

"..." Beyond turned his attention to him, narrowing his eyes. Seeing that Beyond didn't speak up made Aizawa tense a little, but he refused to show it. "Hey! He asked you a question!" Ide added, as Beyond blinked, a bit disappointed.

"A complete stranger just prances in here asking to speak to L..." Beyond finally spoke up, the sound of his voice and slight antagonistic tone making the group tense even more. "And that's all you do, ask me a few questions. Really, I expected more from you. Something like pinning me down and locking me up or the like."

"Wha- Is he insane?" Ukita blurted out, while Mogi decided against speaking. Better to be safe around a guy that was giving him such a bad feeling.

"Are you actually telling us to capture you?" Matsuda spoke up, Beyond noticing that his voice was the one that mostly annoyed him of all.

"No. I'm not." Beyond waved his hands around, but for what reason lost to the group there. "Who'd want that? All I'm saying is that I thought you'd do that. Which, mind you, is not the same as wanting you to do so. I am, above all, relieved."

Liar.

They all could tell that he was bluntly lying and not even trying to hide it. He had just moments ago admitted that he had expected more from them, as if he had been disappointed, and now he's saying he is relieved. "Look. We are not in the mood, nor do we have the time, to play games with you. Tell us who you are and what it is you want, otherwise I am afraid we will have no choice but to detain you."

'Ah... Aizawa, getting to the point already. Maybe this group isn't so bad after all.' Cracking his neck by shifting his head to the side, Beyond smiled and began to speak, not bothering to even place his head back in the proper position. "Well, alright. You win. Good evening task force, my name is Ryuzaki, and I will be-"

"What!" Matsuda basically shouted, but covered his mouth at that moment. The rest just stared. "As I was saying..." Beyond continued, glaring at Matsuda. "My name's Ryuzaki and I've come here to meet the lot of you. Does that answer your question?"

"Hell no, it just raises more." Ike answered on Aizawa's behalf, edging closer to Beyond. "You just barge in here like that and begin to spout nonsense, we told you already to tell us-"

Before he could continue, he was stopped by a hand being placed onto his shoulder. As he turned, he saw said hand belonged to Soichiro, who was looking sternly at Beyond, much to the latter's amusement. "I won't stand here and watch you mock my subordinates like this, I can see what you're up to."

"Oh?"

"You come here asking for L, dressed like that, and even introduce yourself as Ryuzaki. You're just toying with us. Who are you really? You clearly now a lot more than you let on, about us, about L. You're dressed like him, you use the same name and you even imitate some of his... erm... habits." Soichiro tried his best not to add the tags "weird" or "freakish" into that last sentence, but he still did get the message across. Beyond's eyes widened for a bit, genuinely surprised at the older man's accuracy.

'I suppose...' He thought to himself, biting his thumb a bit harder. '...It is to be expected, you Yagamis are turning into such a pain in the ass...'

With that, a sound of applause filled the room, as everyone looked on as Beyond began to clap, a bit loudly. "Impressive, most impressive. No wonder you're in charged. After L, that is..."

"Cut the crap and answer us." Ukita joined in with Aizawa and Ike, while the dumbfounded Matsuda and observing Mogi just looked on. Soichiro crossed his arms as he awaited a response, while Beyond just sighed, scratching the back of his head and turning said head to the other side.

"Oh fine... If you most know. I'm the real L. The one you met was just a substitute of sorts just in case Kira was one of you. Since I'm sure you guys are genuinely good guys, I've come to officially join you."

"That's a load of crap." Aizawa again, getting further annoyed as Beyond could tell. "Ryuzaki is the real L-"

"I am Ryuzaki."

"Not you, the oth- the real one. The one who has been with us all this time. He's the real L." Ike glared at Beyond, while the latter just looked on. "Really... Then I must be mistaken."

"This guy..." Matsuda clenched his fist, unsure of what to do. Soichiro, however, closed his eyes for a moment, before reopening them. "You aren't going to cooperate, are you?"

"Who ever said that?" Beyond spoke in a somewhat hurt tone, or tried to sound hurt anyway. It came out sounding more creepy than pitiful. "I'm doing the best I can, but if you say I'm not L, then does that make me Kira?"

At the sound of that name three guns were simultaneously pointed in Beyond's direction, them belonging to Aizawa, Ike and Mogi respectively. Ukita joined in a few moments later, with Matsuda following. "Hey. Hey. Easy..." Beyond waved his hands around some more, rather randomly. "I was joking, would Kira just come here and announce something like that?"

"No." Soichiro spoke up walking towards Beyond, as Beyond raised his gaze to met the much taller man's. "But since you refuse to cooperate, I have no choice but to detain you. Finding this place and entering is no simple task, but the amount of information you possess is dangerous."

"Dangerous? I'll tell you what's dangerous Soichiro." The elder man eyes widened upon hearing his name being mentioned, as the rest of the group followed suit. Before he could even react, Beyond continued. "Dangerous is that bastard pathetic-excuse for a human being you have for a son."

In an instant, Beyond was shoved against the wall and held tightly by the collar of his shirt, the elder man's glare placed firmly onto him. While the others tried to speak to him, Soichiro didn't respond, he didn't even listen. His attention was focused directly upon Beyond, who was looking as amused as ever. "I don't know who you are or how it is you know my name, but the moment you insult any member of my family I could care less. If you don't want to talk, I'll make you."

"You poor fool." Beyond just narrowed his eyes. "You really have no idea what's going on around you, do you?"

Before Soichiro, who had every intention of smacking the hell out of Beyond, could accomplish this, he was stopped by a voice of another person entering the vicinity.

"Oh dear. I knew something must have been wrong for there to be so much ruckus." Watari just sighed as everyone in the room turned his eyes onto him, while Beyond just smiled. "Really, B. Is this anyway for you to present yourself? I thought I taught you better..."

"Old man..."

"I'll see you later then, okay." With that said, Misa Amane gave a polite bow and turned to leave away from the Yagami residence, as Light, Sachiko and Sayu looked on. The blonde-haired girl seemed quite happy after having been upstairs with Light for a bit, causing the elder woman to wonder what had happened between the two. Sayu, however, just turned to her brother. "Aren't you going to walk her home?"

"Nah." Light spoke up, as he turned to walk inside. "She told me she rather go alone; she has a few things to do before hand."

"Oh..." And the conversation was left at that, as Light went back up towards his room, a devilish smile planted onto his lips. L might have gotten the first move, but soon Kira would gain the upper hand again. Soon L and every other who opposed him would be dead. With that in mind, Light locked himself up in his room to further his plans, with Ryuk following closely behind, as amused as ever at the current turn of events.

As Misa walked, or rather, skipped her way from Light's house to her own, Rem couldn't help but feel worried. "Are you sure about this Misa, you know I don't quite trust that man..."

"You're over thinking things Rem. Misa's got it all under control, so don't worry. Besides, he loves Misa." This caused the young girl to skip a bit more and made her smile widen, but this did not ease the feeling that the Shinigami had felt. The sensation that something was wrong was strong, but she decided she would simply watch and intervene if necessary. She had already warned the boy after all, and she knew he wasn't stupid. Still, something seemed off...

As Misa made her way back towards her house, a leather-clouded figure watched from a bit afar. Said figure made a mental note of the name "Rem", not sure if the girl had been talking on her cell phone or to herself. Regardless of which, it really didn't matter. All that did was figuring out who this girl was and what connections did she have with Light Yagami.

With that in mind, Naomi Misora continued her investigation...

The door opened with a hiss, as the older man accompanying him motioned him to enter the room, giving him a small nod of acknowledgement and quickly closing the door behind him. Hands fitted neatly inside their respective pocket, Beyond Birthday slowly strolled inside the room, walking at a certain unorthodox rhythm. The room's interior design left so much to be desires, everything looking either pale or downright worn-out. In the words more befitting a man of such stature as that of Beyond Birthday, the place was just plain boring and monotonous.

His eyes then became fixated upon a lone figure sitting at the center of the room, back turned towards his newly-arrived "guest", full attention focusing onto the computer screens in front of him. The smell of sugar, too much sugar, filled the area. As Beyond lifted a brow at the scene, the other man's hand went from the keyboard towards his side; where a jelly donut was picked out at random out of a box of apparently never ending sweets and stuffed into his mouth. Within moments, the donut was no longer existent.

"Now this is really depressing." Beyond's voice filled the room, as he shifted his body's weight from one foot to the other. "Really now; no strawberry jam. I'm disappointed... L."

"…Strawberry jam, while good in its own way, leaves something to be desired." L spoke up, slowly turning his chair to face Beyond. "I prefer a more "solid" substance, so to speak. Helps me thing better, wouldn't you say."

Beyond's eyes widened slightly when L finally made eye contact with him, though not for the reasons he would have originally expected. Adorning L's face was, in Beyond's opinion, a poorly decorative mask which was apparently supposed to look like L. Positioning his thumb into his mouth, Beyond let out a chuckle. "Are we really that cautious? I come all the way here and this is the show of trust I get..."

"Huh? You mean this." He spoke, as he pointed to the mask, while Beyond didn't even bother to nod. Placing his hand on his mask, L quickly pulled it and removed it, allowing Beyond to see his face. Through the reflection of his own face through Beyond's eyes, L just looked on, as his name and death quickly appeared above his head in Beyond's point of view. "This is just something Near came up with, sent it to me a few days ago. Pretty accurate for someone who hasn't really seen my face."

"So the little brat has gotten better, should have figured." Beyond took a few steps forwards, but stopped, attention slightly caught by one of the computer screens. Inwardly smiling, Beyond turned his attention back to L. "So..." He began, pointing at the screen. "You suspect Light Yagami as well."

"I'm eighty-six percent certain he is Kira, or at the very least, involved with Kira." As L returned his attention back to his own screens, Beyond continued to walk towards him until he was close enough to spit on him, but opting to just take a seat next to him. "You sure it's a good idea to show me your face?"

"It's not like you haven't seen it before..." L noted, not bothering to look at the other man who was sitting in a similar fashion to him. "Beside, were you any threat to me, you wouldn't be sitting there at the moment."

"I suppose."

"But still..." L stopped for a moment, ceasing his typing on the keyboard just enough for a complete silence to fill the room. Beyond narrowed his eyes. Had this been a few years ago, hell, a few days ago, he would have not given it a second thought about strangling the man before him without a second's moment of hesitation. But now, he felt awfully calm. Even more so than he thought he'd be. Did he really hate Kira that much more, or was it...

"I'm actually curious as to why you came here in person." L continued, offering Beyond a donut who just shook his head. "Last I checked, you hated the very sight of me. Ironic as it may be since you love to cosplay me so..."

"Don't flatter yourself. My look was originally meant to mock you; I just got used to it is all."

"Really, then I'm flattered."

"I told you not to be."

"Oh... then I'm not."

Irony...

Beyond's eyes twitched, as he took a deep breath to avoid getting riled up. His fight wasn't with L, not directly anyway, at least not now. "I still hate you. Hate what you stand for, what you achieved and what I could not. What you did to me, and to..." He stopped; there was no need to go any further. L just looked on, eyes slightly narrowed as he licked the jelly out of the donut.

"...I'm sorry."

"The hell?" Beyond chuckled, which quickly became a fit of laughter, filling up the entire room. L's expression did not change, as Beyond stopped momentarily. "Sorry? Sorry! For what?" His voice rose, as he edged closer to L. "Don't give me that bullcrap. You're sorry for what? Being L? Being the greatest detective to ever live and that I failed at taking that from you. It's your job. I don't want your apologies, I want your life."

For a moment, Beyond didn't know how he had meant that last part, but it didn't matter. Let L imagine whatever he wanted to. L on the other hand, didn't change his expression. "That's..." L began, as Beyond looked on, expectantly. "...not what I meant."

"Pardon?"

"You are correct when you say that being a detective is my job. I do not regret being the best, or the second best, or the third." Beyond eyes narrowed, which L took as a sign and cleared his throat before continuing. "Nor do I ever regret keeping my title from you and even stopping your murders back at Los Angeles. I did what I had to, and if necessary, I'd do it again."

Silence refilled the room, which prompted Beyond to speak up but was stopped by L's voice. "What I do regret, is what you were put through in order to surpass me. And..." He met Beyond's eyes, if only for a moment. "...for what happened to A."

At that moment L was pulled upwards by the collar of his shirt by a now standing Beyond, who brought his face mere inches from his own. "Don't you dare mention her name. She would have surpassed you if you bastards didn't try to rush it. She was better that either of us."

"...I'm aware." L spoke up, his hand trying to reach the last of the jelly donuts but not quite reaching do to the distance Beyond put, rather forcefully, between him and the box. Upon realizing this, L pouted. "However..." He turned his attention back to Beyond. "Perhaps it is best not to speak of that now. Do know however that I am truly sorry."

"And do know, that I truly don't care."

"Fair enough." With that Beyond released the other man who fell, purposely, back onto his chair. Reaching out for the donut, he was stopped when Beyond quickly took the donut and took a bite out of it. For the first time in who knows how long, L just looked on with a rather dumbfounded look plastered onto his face. "That's just mean."

"Serves you right." Beyond swallowed the last remains of the donut, licking the jelly from his lips to emphasize how good it had been. L just frowned.

"Ignoring that..." L spoke up, turning his attention back to the screens. "You never did tell me why you were here."

"Isn't it obvious?"

"If it were, would I be asking?"

Taking another deep breath, Beyond sat onto the chair once again, shifting his view onto the ceiling. "Kira... really is something else."

"The power to kill anyone by just knowing his or her name and face. A power which neither the world's greatest detective or the world's greatest criminal can possibly stop, at least, that's what some people say..." L turned once again to face Beyond, smiling slightly at the younger man. "I for one, however, know that justice will prevail."

Laughing at the sound of those words, Beyond returned L's gaze with his own. "Such a childish statement, or perhaps, does it have a darker meaning to it?"

"I have no idea what you're referring to."

"So it would seem." Sighing, Beyond stood back up, taking a few steps to leave the room. He, however, stopped. His back still turned to L, who in turn also had his own back turned to him, Beyond spoke up. "I guess even I don't know why I came here for. Perhaps I needed a little motivation, seeing as you're just as caught up in all of this as I am. Or maybe I was just bored, who knows..." He shifted his head slightly, as L kept quiet, waiting. "Still..." He continued, cracking his neck in the process. "I will do what I must. You have the resources at your disposal which I lack, but I can do the things you cannot. I will catch Kira, my way. If you intervene, I'll take you both out at once."

"Dully noted." L waved his hand in acknowledgement, poking his head with his index finger to emphasize. "Do note however. If things get out of hand, I will have to stop you."

"You can try." With that said Beyond opened the door, ready to make his way out.

"I am surprised however." L's voice stopped him. "That you would go so far just to surpass me. Perhaps there's and ulterior motive at hand here, like say..." A smile graced his lips, as L turned slightly to view Beyond's hunched backside. "...Miss Naomi Misora?"

A moment of silence was quickly ended by a light chuckle from Beyond's end, who continued to walk away. "I..." He spoke up, after having walked out of the room. "...have no idea what you're referring to."

After Beyond left and the room returned to its usual (Matsuda-less) silence, L just stared. 'Going out of his way to met up with me just so our plans don't intercept with one another... all for the sake of a single person... You really have changed, haven't you, B...'

With that in mind, L turned back onto his computer screen, but is attention was caught by a news bulleting which was showing at Sakura TV. His eyes narrowed, realization hitting him. 'Then again... maybe not so much...'

The whole world looked upon the screens of their television sets in awe, as tomorrow's front-page news article was flashed before their eyes. The letters "BB", written in a Cloister Black font, was shown with a blank background. As everyone watched on, a synthetic voice quickly spoke to them, emotionless as both L and "Kira" before him had. Word of mouth quickly spread, regarding the identity of this new third player.

"Evening. As you all can tell, both L and Kira have the habit of giving out messages in this particular manner, and I intend to follow suit. I am neither L nor Kira, nor am I associated with them in any matter. Who I am is no business to any of you, but you may refer to me a BB."

Around the world every single person eyes were glued to their screens, wondering who this newcomer was, and how much of what he was saying was true. Only a few knew for certain what this was about.

Misa Amane had no idea who it was, but she was sure he was not associated with Kira. Light would have told her something if such was the case, since this didn't seem to go along with their plan. Rem, on the other hand, just looked on; her bad feeling getting even worse than before.

Not far behind the two, Naomi also looked on, having a pretty clear idea on who was behind all of this. After all, who else would be that stupid?

'Beyond... you idiot...'

Likewise, Light Yagami also had his attention currently fixated upon his television set on his room, where he sat alongside his respective Shinigami. "The surprises just keep on coming..." Ryuk's laughter filled the room, as the Shinigami stuffed another apple onto his mouth. Light paid no attention to him, eyes narrowed slight but not reflecting any fear or worry.

'Rue Ryuzaki...'

"What I am..." The message continued, taking a moment's pause for dramatic purposes if nothing else. "…Is something bigger than both Kira and L combined. BB shall be known to the world from this day forwards as the greatest criminal mastermind to ever live. The one criminal which Kira will not be able to kill. And the one which L shall not capture. You'll all bear witness to it, when the time is right. I will surpass L. And... I will..."

From that moment on, everything changed. The fight between Kira and L was no longer ever spoken without adding "and BB" to it. A battle between two forces became a war between three sides, much closer than anyone could have ever guessed. This, however, was only the beginning...

"...KILL KIRA!"

* * *

A small note I'd like to make. Just because the events of the Los Angeles murders happened, doesn't mean everything from the book fits here. For one, people here (coughLightcough) can't just google BB and get a picture of me. No, it doesn't work like that. L made sure to keep things underwrap. Not much was revealed about the BB murders, only that the killer had been caught by L. Naomi's identity (who was credited as having helped L), too, has been withheld by L alongside any other officer of the law that's still amongst the living. So no, Kira can't win using the internet. What, deus-ex-machina you say? Heavens no...

Aside from that, next chapter kicks off the new arc… for real this time… seriously…


	12. Arc 2: Chapter 1: Smooth Criminal

I'm back... again...

After a year-long hiatus, I've managed to get my writing back in order and found myself easily finishing this chapter here with hardly any difficulty. I honestly missed writing this... That's good, no? Anywho, This chapter has been retconned to be the official first chapter of Arc 2. Don't get me wrong, the story didn't change in the slightest, just that the chapter before this one now read Chapter 10 and this one is the official Arc 2; Chapter 1.

Why? I liked the previous chapter's ending better...

Anywho, thanks for your patience and reviews (& JAM)! For those interested, I've added a comic of sorts to my DeviantART page which you can find the link in my profile here and will update my DNB comic shortly. For those solely interested in this fic, new and old alike, simply read on...

* * *

Arc 2

Chapter 1

Smooth Criminal

Rain.

Large droplets fell from the sky, unevenly. It wasn't raining hard, not hard enough to be considered heavy at least. It did not alert anyone, nor did it stop their night life. It was nothing more than a mere nuisance. It did, however, make the night seem a bit gloomier. Colder… And darker…

It set the ideal mood…

…for his little game.

As a few more rain drops fell from the sky, a lone piece of newspaper flew from the south and landed on a recently made puddle. It was an old piece, crumbling under the weight of the water. Its dying letters left only the previous week's headline readable. One word, two letters…

BB

Said paper was crushed under a wheel as it slowly stopped, belonging to a transportation van which had stopped directly in front of a now abandoned apartment complex. One of the two complexes, since there were two buildings in total, both facing each other with only a wide street to separate them. Said street just as abandoned as the two buildings, save for the opening van.

Soichiro Yagami opened one of the doors to the side, taking a look at the surrounding area for a bit. He quickly reentered the van.

"I'll be the other to go." His stern voice echoed across the van, as the six others accompanying him only looked on. He had not spoken to them, but rather to the laptop sitting on the back. "L" written on its screen.

"Roger…" The screen spoke up, in its usual voice. Soichiro wasted no more time as he quickly placed his helmet in place, followed by grabbing a gun given to him by L. He loathed using one, but circumstances had gone beyond his control. To protect his family, he was willing to do anything.

"Alright." Soichiro spoke, causing the rest to look his direction. "We'll go inside and see just what is happening in there, the rest of you stay here and keep watch. Don't act unless necessary. We're not in a war, not yet at least…"

"Understood sir." Aizawa quickly acknowledged, leaving little time for the rest of the team to actually say anything or oppose the idea. With that as it was, Soichiro followed his equally clad companion outside of the van. After a few quick steps, the two had found their way into the building complex, the rest of the team informing L of the progress.

The inside of the building was, if anything could be said, "off-putting" in appearance. He wasn't sure why, but that was the best word he could use. Nothing else was out of the ordinary with this place, but he didn't ponder it too much. He didn't have to either, as his partner signaled the elder man after entering one of the main lobbies.

"My God…" Soichiro spoke up, lifting the visor from his bulletproof helmet to be able to see a little clearer, since the place was pitch black. Infrared goggles would have been a better idea, but alas.

The old man's eyes widened as he saw what they were looking for, eyes slowly narrowing as a result. Picking up his receiver, he spoke up. "It's… here." He continued, taking a small breath. "The captives are here."

"Roger that." Mogi's voice could be heard, as Soichiro lowered himself to inspect the people before him.

Handcuffed and against the wall, a total of seven wanted criminals, who had disappeared mysteriously one by one during the passing week, were currently inside. Said criminals had supposedly changed their appearance in order to fool Kira, yet here they were. Although, L himself had doubted this to be Kira's handiwork. Rather…

Another hand signal from his silent partner caused the elder man to turn to look at what immediately caught his attention. The criminals, whose faces had been covered by a bag of sorts, upon removing the bag appeared to be wearing an animal mask of sort. "What the…?" Soichiro spoke up, moving one of their faces to examine it closer. "A pig, a horse, sheep, lion, tiger, monkey and a dog… This are Halloween masks, why would he?"

His eyes widened, when he moved to remove the mask. At that time the criminal, who had previously appeared to be in a sleeping state, shook violently as muffled screams filled the area. Soichiro had to force the man, who was nearly as tall as himself, into submission. It was then that he noticed what was wrong.

"These masks… are sown to their faces…"

His partner looked on as Soichiro raised himself, sighing. "This bastard is just toying with them now, regardless, he got away before we even got here. If this is his idea of saving people from Kira, well, I don't like it."

Before the other could speak, Soichiro continued. "Regardless…" The elder man sighed; he was too old for this. "Let's get these scumbags out of here, then we'll deal with their new looks…"

As quickly as they had gone inside, the other five remaining members of the task force continued to keep watch, to little fruition. "You really think…" Matsuda was the one to cut the silence, feeling that a little conversation couldn't hurt. "That that maniac BB is in there… Or that Kira's the one who…"

"Regardless of whom it is…" Aizawa cut in, though giving the younger man a reassuring smile. "We'll catch him and go back to L to brag about it."

Matsuda simply returned the smile, before being nearly pushed aside by Mogi as the latter saw movement inside of the complex. Truly enough, Soichiro was seen walking out while half-carrying two of the captives. Ukita, being the closest to the door, quickly stepped out and assisted Soichiro with them. "They're handcuffed, gagged and in a state of almost unconscious, but they can still react, so don't let them go."

"Don't worry about that, I got it." Ukita spoke up, while raising his brow at what adorned the faces of these "notorious" criminals. "Uh…" He spoke, trying to figure out how to phrase it. "Why do these guys have ma-"

He stopped, eyes widening.

Soichiro merely narrowed his eyes, unseen to anyone thanks to the helmet. "He's a barbarian, that's for sure. Just make sure…" He stopped, looking at Ukita. "Ukita, are you-"

Ukita immediately collapsed onto the ground, desperately grabbing his chest as he screamed in agony, causing Soichiro to immediately release the two he was holding onto and rushing towards the fallen Ukita's side. It was then that he froze. Ukita was…

"What was that shout just-"

Ide was stopped from whatever it was he was going to say by the shout that the elder Yagami gave. "Get back inside! Kira's got us!"

Aizawa and Ide immediately jumped back onto the van as fast as they could, as Mogi pushed Matsuda before he could try and get out. Covering themselves as to not be spotted from any window or such, they could hardly speak.

"What happened? What happened to Ukita?" Matsuda's shouts could be heard.

"Kira! It's that bastard Kira! He got him!" Ide spoke as he slammed his fist to the floor.

"How? Did he get our names?" Mogi asked, trying to stay calm.

"We can't leave Soichiro out there!" Ide shouted back.

"Don't say his name; you'll put him in danger!" Aizawa retorted.

Soichiro had noticed that at the moment he had spoken, his partner had been coming out with two more captives, only to duck and hide behind the door of the complex's interior at the notion of what was going on.

He tried to think of what to do, but was taken aback when he saw someone running out of the complex, at a very fast pace. Said person ran past him; as Soichiro recognized the man as one of the captives whose mask was that of a sheep.

'He's… Damn!'

The man ignored this, heading straight for the other building.

Thanks to running as fast as he could, he managed to cross the street and reach the other building rather quickly, stopping only momentarily to take his breath after he had entered the building. He was thankful that the rain hadn't been too heavy, or else he would have had trouble seeing, from the mask, the exact moment that Ukita Hirokuza's life counter had changed. Fully knowing that the building he had been on was empty, this was the only place left to hide.

And with that, Beyond Birthday was in the same place as Kira.

"Misa's scared!" The blonde spoke to her Shinigami companion, the latter who had remained quiet ever since arriving at this spot. She merely looked on as the blonde petite struggled with her thoughts. "This is bad." Misa Amane spoke up, closing her Death Note as she prepared herself. "Misa gets them in the spot Misa wants and some weirdo comes out wearing a mask and rushes here to where Misa is."

"I told you Light Yagami's plan was not to be trusted, you-"

"This is not Light's fault." Misa countered Rem, before the Shinigami had been able to finish her sentence. "Light was very clear with his intention, Misa was just impatient."

At that moment Misa heard the sound of echoing footsteps, in a rather quick rhythm, getting closer and closer to where she was at. "And now Misa has to go…"

"Considering the position and height of the van with where it was Ukita was standing…" Beyond pondered as he made his way up the stairs as fast as he could. "Kira number two has to be on the sixth floor or higher, but considering how stupid said Kira has acted in the past, chances are…"

At this, upon reaching the sixth floor, Beyond caught a glimpse of a retreating figure amongst the darkness of the area. Still, it had been enough. "Got you."

Rushing towards the retreating back of the figure, Beyond stepped up as fast as he could. Still, the other person was fast, as he had trouble keeping up. Said person took a sharp turn to the left, causing Beyond to nearly trip while following suit. Upon said maneuver, Beyond immediately took off one of his shoes. Taking what little aim he could, he tossed said shoe towards the figure, hitting "him" directly upon the head.

To his dismay, said figure was "unmoved" by the hit, or rather, not stopped. Continuing the chase, while putting his shoe back on, caused the rift between the two to enlarge instead of shortening, to which Beyond cursed under his breath.

Another sharp turn, this time well timed by Beyond as well, shifted the chase towards the staircase. To Beyond's surprise, Kira was running up the stairs, and not down. Beyond simply followed, eyes narrowed. "Give it up Kira!" He shouted, to no response. "You can't get away from me. I won't let you!"

Though he questioned how intimidating a skinny guy with a sheep mask looked from another's point of view, he digressed. What he did see intimidating, however, was when Kira-to-be stopped at the top of one of the stairs, standing behind what seemed to be some sort of machine.

Beyond had little time to actually realize what it was since said machine, a washing machine if he had to guess, was pushed towards the stairs and began crashing against the very steps he was climbing up. 'They planned this much ahead!'

Immediately taking a step back, Beyond could tell that the action would allow the person to escape the place without Beyond being able to stop him, that or the washing machine would crush his bones leaving for the same scenario.

Grabbing onto the rails, Beyond quickly flipped his body across them landing on the other side of the staircase, holding himself in thin air thanks to the rails and what little of the steps he could balance himself in. The washing machine crashed passed him and onto the wall at the back, while the other continued to run. Using his position to his advantage, Beyond flipped his body again and jumped from the rail he was holding onto to the rail at the very top. Holding onto said rail tightly, he flipped his body and swung his leg against the back of the retreating figure. This time the figure did register the blow, as Beyond used enough force to stop said person in an instant. A swift hand motion found Beyond turning himself before landing on the ground, landing another kick onto the figure and sending both bodies onto the floor.

As the other tried to desperately move, Beyond quickly hoped atop the defeated Kira and pulled out a carving knife he was grateful hadn't fallen out of place thanks to all that jumping and turning. Positioning said knife at the person's neck, Beyond smiled, unseen behind the sheep mask. "Game over, bastard."

Pushing the killer's face to what little light came from a nearby window, Beyond's eyes widened at the realization of just who it was he had been chasing. "You're…" He spoke up a bit softly, before clenching the knife's handle in sheer fury.

"Junichiro Kyotaru…" Beyond identified the wanted criminal, having seen said man's wanted poster and data a while back and confirming it with the floating letters above said person's head. "The hell? You're the second Kira."

"Don't say that!" Junichiro cried out, covering his face with his right hand since Beyond was currently holding the other arm hostage with his knee. "I can't tell you anything! I can't speak! The monster! It'll eat me!"

"Wha…?" Beyond looked around, eyes narrowing. He couldn't see anyone else there; any _thing_ else there.

'Monster…' Beyond just stared, as the man below him began to sob, frantically trying to get himself loose. This… this man was no longer the same murderer he had once been.

Grabbing the man by the collar, Beyond brought him to an eye level. "Who did this to you? What "monster" are you talking about?"

"I-I can't say! Let me go! It'll kill me!" He swung away violently, which Beyond had to admit made it hard to keep him in place. And yet, he swung erratically, almost lifelessly. Beyond grit his teeth as he slammed the man's back against the cold floor, shouting his words this time.

"The one who's going to kill you is me! Talk or I'll feed you your own organs! Who! Is! Kira!" Almost roaring out the last few lines, Beyond managed to at least get the taller man's attention towards himself, as said man finally made direct eye contact.

"P-Please don't let it kill me…" Junichiro spoke between sobs, as Beyond's grip loosened, if only slightly. "Kira… Is not who you all think. H-"

The screams of agony filled the hallway where the two were currently at, as Beyond desperately tried to at least get the words out of him. Unfortunately, after a few moments the screaming faded, as did the killer's heartbeat. Beyond was left there with the corpse of a criminal who had seen Kira, personally. Who had apparently seen more of Kira than any one else. '…Damn.'

Standing up, Beyond merely stared at the corpse, whose facial features demonstrated nothing but fear, and whose head showed no name, no date…

"You were just the decoy…" He spoke, aloud. No one remained in the entire apartment complex, leaving the Los Angeles mastermind alone to his thoughts. "The second Kira proved to be a bit smarter than I gave him credit… Either that, or this was the doing of the first…"

Beyond stopped, looking out the window as he saw that the rain had subsided. "Light Yagami. Could he really do this much? Can that boy be considered a "monster"…?"

His thoughts stopped at the moment he saw a bright flash of light come from the window, followed swiftly by the sound of a rising helicopter. As if on cue, said helicopter appeared from on of the hallway windows, shining its bright light through. "Kira! You are surrounded! You are under arrest!"

"You've got to be shitting me." Beyond smiled, out of irony. "Where the hell were you ten minutes ago?"

He knew they couldn't hear. They could hardly see him, if at all. All they knew was that Kira was probably in that building. And he had been, minutes ago. Not anymore. Now only he remained.

Beyond Birthday.

Murderer supreme.

Los Angeles killer.

Assassin.

Maniac.

BB…

"I… better not get caught…"

Holding onto the knife's handle, he struggled to pick up the deceased Junichiro up by the arm. "I'll need you…" He spoke as he managed to pick him up. Looking around, he spotted something of use in what appeared to be a janitorial room, as he thanked that his eyes had become accustomed to the dark. "That'll do…"

"Come out with your hands were we can see them. This is your last warning!" Were the words heard throughout the area thanks to the officer in command who spoke through his speaker. Truth be told, none of the surrounding forty or so policeman even wanted the rumor that Kira was in there to be true, yet they had to try and do something. Either that or it was the other rumored killer…

"What are you doing?" A voice caused the senior officer to turn towards a fully clad officer coming towards him. Before he could speak, Soichiro flashed him his badge and, in a swift movement, grabbed the officer by the collar. "This is suicide! Tell you men to cover themselves, mostly the face. I just lost one of mine and we were near the other building. This is Kira we're dealing with!"

"Kira was able…" He stopped, turning to face the squadrons. "Officers, full cover to every one of you. I don't want any of you to be even the slightly recognizable, understood!"

As officers hurried to better equip themselves, the officer turned to Soichiro. "Thanks… But, you're one of those who are working for the man himself, right?"

"Yeah…" He spoke, a dull pain evident in his voice. Mixed with anger. The other could tell that he should try to limit his words. Still, he didn't need to think much, as the sound of a loud thumping noise filled the area followed by the sound of cracking glass.

"The hell?" The officer spoke before turning and seeing that a big bag had been dumped a top his car; landing on the bumper and cracking the windshield slightly. "Wha-?"

"Sir." One of the officers, now fully clad, spoke up. "It fell from the second floor, apparently tossed by someone inside."

As the officer is command was at a lost, Soichiro quickly spoke up. "That means there is someone in there! Proceed with caution and verify the contents inside that bag, we need to get the bastard in there out here without any of us dying."

The other officer, whose rank was low and who was honestly terrified of it all, wasted no time and followed Soichiro's orders without a second thought, signaling those around him to follow suit. The elder officer, who went by the name of Ryujirou, didn't even bother to argue, instead simply signaling to the others to do as told.

As a group of officers examined the bag, they slowly opened it by the zipper. Said bag looked to be used to keep a hose or such large object in place, as it was rather spacious. Upon opening, the officer nodded.

"Sir." He began, slowly. "We've found Junichiro Kyotaru, deceased."

"That bastard sent us the body…" Ryujirou spoke up, looking at the deceased man's features. They looked of sheer fright.

"He's throat was cut wide open, presumably then stuffed in here and tossed out."

"Put him on the back." He spoke up as he signaled his own car. We'll deal with the autopsy later; let's focus on the important thing first." As the bag was placed inside of the police car, the other members turned their attention towards the building. The first squad was sent inside, made up of about twenty members, all fully clad from head to toe. Ryujirou simply stared from nearby the back of his car as he removed his helmet for a moment, thinking that perhaps putting a decaying body back there might not be the best idea.

He realized that the idea was bad the moment a hand reached out from inside the car and, in a swift motion, knocked him out by slamming his head against the vehicle. As one of the officers turned, all he could see was Ryujirou's body falling to the ground.

"Si-!"

A shot was heard as the younger man fell to the ground, clenching his leg that had been shot by his senior officer's pistol, as the few remaining officers turned to see what was going on. Suddenly, Ryujirou's vehicle was turned on, followed by the screeching sound of the wheels as the police car speed away onto the sole street.

Soichiro quickly went to the younger man's assistance, calling out for the others. However, his voice was hard to register, as the sound of another vehicle filled the area as a heavy motor bike speed past him and towards the retreating police car, being driven by his accompanying task force member.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha…. ha!"

Beyond Birthday laughed loudly as he drove the police car away from the scene, pondering where he should get off and go off on foot. That had been too close for comfort, even for him. "I owe you one Junichiro…"

The corpse remained quiet, as Beyond simply smiled. "I mean it. I'm a strategist, not a front line fighter. I would have been caught if not for your quick acting. I mean, who allows me to cut off both their legs so that I can fit in the body bag and the throw both of us out the window and pray that the measurements we took of where the car was were spot on. That's crazy talk if you ask me. You're a real friend… If you weren't dead…"

No response was given to him, not that he wanted one. He kept his eyes one the road, speeding away without getting to much attention to himself. They would be after him soon, so he had better find a spot to run away. "Sorry about the cut in the throat though…." Beyond continued. "It was just in case the saw the blood from your legs. I wanted them to assume it was from your throat. You understand, right?"

His talk with his new friend was paused, for the moment, as he saw a headlight getting closer to him. "What the… Is that a-"

The speeding motorcycle rushed passed him, causing Beyond to simply cock his head. "I'd give you a speeding ticket and all, but I don't think I'm allowed…"

His eyebrow rose, however, as the notion that the motorcycle turned after having passed his, and was currently heading straight for him. "Don't tell me you're a cop?"

As if to answer, the cyclist pulled out a gun and pointed it directly at Beyond's vehicle, causing Beyond to turn the wheel almost as fast as the smile from his face turned into a frown. "Shit!"

Shots were fired as Beyond heard each one make contact with either the side of the car or the street, causing him to speed up even more. "No! If it's Kira this bastards crawl under a rock and let the guy do as he pleases. I come and do something and they've sent bloody G. after me!"

A strong and violent shake of the vehicle caused Beyond to curse, as he figured that one of the wheels had been caught by a bullet. He could still see the lights of the motorcycle not too far behind, so he used what little speed he had left to get the car on a road with went parallel to another road a bit below it. Stopping here, Beyond began to kick the police door, to no avail. He opted to shoot the damn thing then. "Sorry to leave in a hurry Junichiro, but you're dead and I don't want to see you yet!"

A final kick allowed for Beyond to come out of the car with the door in hand, using it as a shield. The cyclist speed towards him, firing at him, luckily landing the hits in the door and not at the few parts of him still exposed. Holding his gun tightly, Beyond tossed the door towards the incoming motorcycle, causing the driver to have to violently turn in order to avoid hitting it, giving Beyond ample time to attempt a quick head shot to end it all.

Unfortunately, in the very same motion that allowed the cyclist to avoid the door also neared said driver to Beyond, resulting in him receiving a flying kick in the hand that sent his gun flying to the street below. Another kick would have probably sent him after it, which he rather not do. Instead, Beyond resorted to catch the other kick and pull the driver towards him, causing both of them to roll to the ground thanks to the momentum built and land a few feet away from one another.

Quickly standing on his feet, Beyond took his knife out and was about to move, only to be stopped by a gun being pointed at him. Sighing, he lowered his inferior weapon. "You… wouldn't believe me if I said this thing can stretch, right?"

"Beyond?"

That voice was familiar, much to his dismay. He narrowed his eyes, as the cyclist removed her helmet. "Beyond, it is you…" Naomi Misora spoke up, sounding relieved. "Do you have any idea what you've been doing?"

"Do you?" He was out of breath, this had been all for nothing. "Don't go in solo like that. If I had been Kira you would have been killed, use that damn head of yours."

"Look who's talking." She resorted back, as he shrugged. "Besides…" She added, smiling slightly. "You're not the only one making a scene around here."

"I suppose."

Silence fell the two, as neither had expected to meet up like this. Still, Naomi did what best she could. Trust him. "Beyond." She caused him to look at her, expectantly. "You saw that one of L's men just died, didn't you?"

He simply nodded, which caused her to frown.

"Let me rephrase that. Do you know how Kira could-?"

"Not quite." He interrupted, apparently not wanting to say much. Either out of arrogance or sincere lack of knowledge, she couldn't tell. He turned away, to which she didn't move. "Just… don't let him see your face…"

After that, neither spoke another word…

News coverage of the occurred quickly spread even with the effort of those involved for it not to. The brutality of the murders and tortures submitted to the criminals at the hands of BB were seen as more monstrous than those evil doers rightfully punished by Kira, although this opinion varied from people to people. Likewise, some thought that L had things under control. Others, however, believed he had long given up against either of them. Still, Kira's notoriety surpassed BB's and even L's…

Much to Light Yagami's delight…

…Who was currently seated staring at his other major headache of the moment.

L, or rather, Ryuzaki was seated in his crouched down position, currently watching Light as he drank a cup of sugar with a little bit of coffee. Light, who had been given a detailed report of the occurrence of yesterday's night, had finished studying said report.

"Your thoughts?" L asked him; stopping from sipping that monstrosity he called a drink to do so. Light merely eyed the other man for a bit before turning to face the documents again.

"This is clearly the work of the second Kira…" Light paused, briefly. "It seems, how to say it, too _sloppy_ for it to be the one we're accustomed to." Light spoke, as natural and calm as he always did, while L simply watched.

"My thoughts exactly…" L added, turning back to drink. Light merely frowned.

"I doubt that."

"Hm?"

"You've been studying this since last night, as opposed to my quick review of it just now. There has to be something more you see in this that you're not telling me." L looked as Light raised his voice slightly, showing off some annoyance.

"Why'd you say that?" L asked, putting his cup down on a nearby table close to his feat. "For what purpose would I omit anything to you?"

"Because you don't trust me." Light calmly stated. "I'm trying to be of use. To help you catch Kira."

"And you think I don't have reasons to distrust you. After all, you haven't been the most innocent of people, have you?" With this L simply smirked, as Light frowned. "After all…" L continued. "You did lie to one of my officers and specifically told her that you were working under me when you first met up with her at the station. Do you think that is not suspicious?"

"I see your game Ryuzaki…" Light spoke up, as L raised his brow. "But it's not like that. I did lie to her, about working under you. But that's exactly why. I wanted to work under you. I wanted to be able to know what she knew in order to have even more to tell you if I ever got the chance to meet up with you. You can blame me for playing dirty and cheating, but I'm no murderer."

"True… I could believe that…" L stated, shifting his eyes. "Yet… when I first directly offered you the spot to work here, you were hesitant. That goes against what you're telling me now."

"No offense, but…" Light sighed, shifting his view slightly. "It was a bit hard for me to believe you were the real thing. Especially considering your doppelganger or what ever it was the other Ryuzaki I had met earlier. If I go by your rules, I'm not the only suspicious person here."

"I really can't argue with that." L said, as Light merely looked on. "Regardless, your chance of being the second Kira dropped to 0%, while your chances of being the first are about 35%, or so…"

"Then let's try to drop that 35 into a 0 as well…"

"Oh?"

"What would you say if I told you that I had an idea…" Light leaned forwards a bit, enough to meet the detective eyes directly, while the shadow of his Shinigami covered the area, invisible to everyone but him.

"…to lure out both Kira and BB…?"

* * *

_ThReE, fOuR, tHiS mEaNs WaR!_

((I've been editing previous chapters slightly, so you might find the first part of the above phrase at one of them... as well as other added tidbits...)) XD

-Rue


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